In selling his border wall, Donald Trump has frequently touted Israel’s barrier with the West Bank as a model. “A wall protects,” he told Fox News shortly after his election. “All you have to do is ask Israel.” He again praised Israel’s wall in a White House meeting last month with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer: “I am proud to shut down the government over border security. If you really want to find out how effective a wall is, just ask Israel.”

Yet if you were to query Israeli officials about the wall, they would likely tell you that their barrier was not built to “protect” Israelis but rather to separate them from Palestinians. They even have a name for it: “the apartheid wall.”

For decades, Israeli officials have employed the Hebrew term Hafrada (“separation” or “segregation”) to describe Israel’s governing policy in the West Bank and Gaza, which involves keeping Palestinians apart from both the Israeli population and the Jewish settler community in the occupied Palestinian territories. The so-called West Bank Barrier, known in Hebrew as “Gader Ha-Hafrada” (“Separation Fence”), was built in accordance with this Hafrada vision.