What Israel has dubbed the "separation wall" will lace the contours of Palestinian West Bank communities with tens of kilometres of cement and barbed wire. In the northern West Bank, the wall is already isolating 50 villages from their livelihood, de facto annexing their land to Israel. In the Jerusalem area, however, what Palestinians have taken to calling the "apartheid wall," is more insidious, creeping between Palestinian communities with barriers of concrete and fencing. Both north and south of Jerusalem, near Ramallah and Bethlehem, the wall - actually a series of fences and patrol roads - is nearing completion. Its confines trace the expansionist borders of "Greater Jerusalem" and close off the city's Arab neighbourhoods to Palestinians cantonized in the outer West Bank.
Ramallah's wall, commenced in August of 2002, falls on one side on the lands of al- Ram, Qalandiya, Kufr Aqab, al-Bireh and Rafat. On the other, reports are of a wall under construction between Dahiat al-Barid and the settlement of Neve Yacov. The barrier's two loose ends connect at the knot of Qalandiya checkpoint, reportedly one of several "crossing points" through which Palestinians will traverse Israeli security. The barrier's path cuts close to residential areas, assuring spying eyes from imposing eight-meter- high Israeli watchtowers. Its span will be 40 to 100 meters wide, encompassing a swath of military roads, sensors and dangerous "buffer zones." On the Ramallah side, it will further isolate 15,000 Jerusalem identity card holders living in Kufr Aqab and Qalandiya Refugee Camp from the city, their families and municipality services.
In Jerusalem's south, at least 15 kilometres of electric fence and an 8-10 meter high concrete barrier will separate Bethlehem from Jerusalem. An integral part of this wall is a fence/road connecting Gilo with surrounding settlements and Israeli population centers. Once Bethlehem's new landscape is completed, the current Bethlehem checkpoint will be moved 200 meters south, physically completing Israel's annexation of the Rachel Tomb/Bilal Ibn Rabah area and drawing a straight line of Israeli access almost to the center of the town. The wall in this area will mean the confiscation of some 18,000 dunums of land, matching in one fell swoop the 14,000 dunums confiscated from the Bethlehem area since 1967.
Symbolic of the wall project's designs - to hide the Palestinian population from view and curtail its growth - cement walls have been erected in various Jerusalem neighbourhoods: at Kubsa checkpoint in Abu Dis, on the Atarot settlement bypass road, and in Gilo settlement itself. These physical barriers have poured into concrete the travel restrictions imposed on Palestinians since the first Gulf War, but they also form a metaphor for a new era of Palestinian erasure.
This essay and photos are deeply indebted to the work of PENGON, the Palestinian Environmental NGO Network (www.pengon.org), which is mobilizing a campaign against the wall.