Issue No. 602
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5 - 11 September 2002 Issue No. 602 Region |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
'It's a bitter life'
A wall Israel built to separate the Palestinian village of Abu Dis from East Jerusalem has turned the lives of its residents into a nightmare. Talal Jabari writes from divided Abu Dis
One by one, Palestinian youth cross through the grounds of the Salaheddin Mosque and the empty Palestinian Legislative Council building in the village of Abu Dis. They scale the fence and jump over to the other side.
The youth were not attempting an infiltration, they were simply students of Al-Quds University who were trying to reach the registrar's office. Education at the Jerusalem university suffered last year due to a combination of Israeli army blockades and strikes by unpaid staff. But with the administration confident the university's monetary problems have been solved, a new problem has now arisen: the Israeli Defence Forces have erected a new concrete fence, dashing hopes of a smoother semester this year.
The concrete slabs and razor wire that make up the fence dissect the village of Abu Dis, and separate three villages -- Abu Dis, Bethany and Ras Al-Amoud -- from Jerusalem's Mount of Olives neighbourhood. The former two are on the West Bank side of the divide, the latter two on Israel's side.
Construction of the fence started soon after a bomb at a cafeteria in Jerusalem's Hebrew University killed seven and injured scores of others. Israeli security forces have arrested five suspects, four of whom are Jerusalem residents, on charges that they carried out this and other attacks against Israeli targets.
None of the suspects were from Abu Dis or Bethany, two villages the Israeli army has, in the past, labelled as frequent passage points for suicide bombers from other parts of the West Bank, including for those that staged an attack in Jerusalem last December.
Haitham Ibrahim, 23, a political science student at Al-Quds University and resident of Abu Dis, cannot understand the new security measures. "Abu Dis is an occupied village. It's not the Palestinians who are in charge of security here, it is the Israeli army."
The new wall has had an impact on everyone in the area, including students and businesses, but, Ibrahim said, those impacted the most are the West Bank residents of Abu Dis who now find themselves on the Israeli side of the border.
"People with West Bank identity cards who now live on the Jerusalem side can't leave their houses, because West Bank residents can't move around [on that side]," Ibrahim said.
Al-Quds University is spread out over several campuses in the villages neighbouring Jerusalem and in Ramallah. The new wall means that the registration and finance offices are now on the Jerusalem side of the fence, which poses a problem for the majority of the 6,000 students.
"Most of the students are from the West Bank. And the army [posts] soldiers and barbed wire at the entrance to the university," says Ibrahim. "The male students and staff jump the walls to reach the campus, but their female counterparts cannot do the same."
Ibrahim Kayali, the university's registrar and a Jerusalem resident, said even bearers of Israeli identity papers have trouble passing the border police position.
"We tried to talk to the soldiers on a number of occasions. We explained to them that this is a university and that the students are coming to study. Each time the soldiers responded with obscene language. They treat the students badly," he said.
For those who are allowed passage, the problem with crossing is that the crossing point changes daily depending on where the Border Police patrol stops, Kayali said. It is this uncertainty that has upset Sister Maria, 72, who lives at an old people's home, now on the Jerusalem side of Abu Dis.
"I came to the top [of the road] but it was closed. Now my legs are very tired," said Maria, who was forced to walk an extra 20 minutes out of her way after visiting a neighbour on the other side of the fence. "It's a bitter life."
The university has taken numerous steps to try and facilitate registration this year. Students can now purchase the registration forms from banks in any city and file the forms with any Education Ministry office. But, Kayali said, with the checkpoint and fence, problems will continue to exist.
"Our main goal now is to encourage students and staff to take residence in Abu Dis. It will be a one-time problem during the move, and then it will be solved."
Until early this month, Bethany and Abu Dis were a mere ten-minute drive from East Jerusalem's city centre and were frequented by Jerusalem residents in search of bargains. The fence means they now have to travel an extral half hour when access to Bethany is allowed.
"The fence has killed business. There used to be heavy traffic on this road until 11.00pm," said Ribhi Othman, head of the Bethany Local Council, staring at a road that at 6.00pm only had sporadic movement.
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