Israel`s Security Wall Forces Further Detours

The wall along this section of the ancient city now separates some 60,000 residents of al-Ram from Jerusalem.

Israel locked a steel gate in the barrier it is building on the edge of the disputed city of Jerusalem, and so began the slow suffocation of the West Bank town of al-Ram, say its Palestinian residents.

The wall along this section of the ancient city now separates some 60,000 residents of al-Ram from Jerusalem, says council leader Sirhan Salaymeh. He says many small businesses have closed as a result.

Thousands of local Palestinians used to cross daily through the barrier in the Dahiyat al-Barid section. When it was finally shut in mid-February, "it didn't just adversely affect al-Ram, it killed al-Ram", said Salaymeh.

Residents with Israeli permits to enter Jerusalem must now use the Qalandiya checkpoint, adding pressure at a bottleneck for people going into the city to work or study.

Two al-Ram cousins, Shadi and Ahmad Sub Laban, live on opposite sides of a street five meters (16 feet) wide but now divided by the barrier. To visit each other they must make a 6 km (4 mile) detour via the checkpoint, which is often congested.

The wall is part of a 720-km (450-mile) barrier under construction on occupied Palestinian land since 2002, a mix of fence and concrete slabs Israel says is meant to keep Palestinian attackers out.

Palestinian suicide bombers have killed 543 Israelis, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. The last such attack came in early February 2008, killing one woman.

BENDING OVER BACKWARDS

Palestinians call the barrier project a land grab which loops around Jewish settlements and slices through swathes of Palestinian farmland throughout the West Bank. Completion of the Jerusalem section is due by 2010.

There are more than 600 Israeli roadblocks or military checkpoints in the West Bank, some of which severely restrict movement for Palestinians and choke internal trade.

Travellers complain of long delays, forced detours and rules that can change unpredictably at the whim of soldiers on duty.

It was a military order by Major-General Gadi Shamni on Jan. 5 which announced the closure of the al-Ram gate due to unspecified "special security circumstances in the area".

Shamni cited "the need for steps to prevent terrorist attacks and to prevent the exit of attackers from the area and their entry into Israel". He said access henceforth would be through checkpoints "set and determined by myself".

Salaymeh said some 5,000 students from the area needed to go to Jerusalem daily to study, and their passage through military checkpoints meant the journey now took up to two hours.

Dore Gold, a senior adviser to Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, said: "Past Israeli governments have bent over backwards ... to try and minimise the effects of the security fence on the everyday lives of Palestinian population."

Netanyahu wants a peace process, based on economic progress, enhanced security, and dialogue, Gold said this week. "For the economic peace component to work, he will be paying very close attention to issues like checkpoints, roadblocks, to see whether we can address the concerns of the Palestinians."

Some 260,000 Arabs, most of them Muslim, live in Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed, in a move that has not won international recognition.

VALUED PERMITS

Israel says the holy city is its capital and will remain so. Palestinians want the eastern half of the city as the capital of the state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Palestinians who are residents of what Israel terms "united" Jerusalem carry special identity cards, giving them access to jobs, welfare and health services, plus freedom of movement denied to their kin who reside in the occupied West Bank.

Al-Ram residents with such cards fear they may soon lose them, because they now live outside the municipality. Israel denies it is slowly shutting Palestinians out.

Ahmad Sub Laban is a researcher for Ir Amim, an Israeli rights group advocating equality in Jerusalem. He has an Israeli ID card, but now lives on the other side of Israel's wall.

"When they closed the gate, that's when they completely ruined our lives," said Sub Laban, who works in West Jerusalem.

Conversely, up to 200 al-Ram Palestinians with West Bank ID cards now find themselves residing on the Jerusalem side of the wall but working or studying in the West Bank, he says.

They are cut off from al-Ram municipal services but have no access to Israeli services. They can't go anywhere in Jerusalem except for the area where they live, and they need a permit.