HIZMA, West Bank, April 19, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Completely cut off from relatives and friends by Israel's separation wall, Palestinians see nothing but a grim future for their families and children.
"This is a prison," Nihad Khatib told Reuters on Wednesday, April 19, glancing at the high concrete barrier.
Living in the outskirts of Hizma, a town in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem), she is one of 50 people from related families completely separated from their own relatives by the wall.
Since the barrier construction, she has been unable to see her own brother Raed, who lives less than a hundred meters away.
The 700km-long wall has resulted in the confiscation of 11,4000 dunums (2,850 acres - 1,140 hectares) of privately-owned Palestinian land and in the destruction of 102,320 trees, according to a UN report.
It estimated that with the competition of the wall, 30 percent of the West Bank population, or some 680,000 people, will be "directly harmed".
After the International Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling branding the wall as illegal, the UN General Assembly asked Israel to tear it down and compensate the Palestinians affected.
Grim Future
Palestinian residents say that they see no hope for a better future for their own, families and children.
Nihad said she had no idea how her grandchildren will be able to go to school or play soccer with their friends when the barrier is sealed.
She does not even know where the children will be educated once the border is finalized.
"If they had put the wall further up the hill, on the other side of our house, then it would have been better because we could be with the rest of the town," said 12 year-old Nassim.
"Now if my friends want to talk to me, they'll have to call me up," he said.
For now, there are gaps in the wall around Hizma, allowing few cut off from the rest to reach shops and schools in town by walking 15 or 20 minutes to an unmanned crossing point.
But Israeli officials say the gaps will be closed in the coming weeks.
Helpless
Palestinians say they have nothing to do to stop the Israeli government from pursuing the construction of the barrier.
"We had a week's warning. In that time we went and found a lawyer and paid him $6,000," said Khaled Hameeda, a relative of Nihad.
"The lawyer tried, but they (the Israeli government) got permission to go ahead with the wall anyway."
Hameeda, however, still hopes that the Israeli government would consider a reroute of the barrier.
"Maybe the Israelis will decide to change the route of the wall," he said, although he did not seem to hold out much hope given his lawyer's failure to win the original case.
The Israeli human rights group B'tselem says only one case calling for a re-routing of the barrier around Al-Quds has so far been successful.
"It's a political issue, it can be discussed," Hameeda said.
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