Twists and turns (part four)

I have two more things I want to share with you about Jerusalem that I learnt last week. One, on the separation barrier, told to me by an Israeli woman, and the other, about settlements, told to me by an Israeli man who spends his life monitoring settlement activity in the West Bank.

First, the Separation Barrier. The Israeli woman carefully explained that the decision to build the barrier between Israelis and Palestinians came after a particularly deadly period of terrorist attacks. From 2000-2002, 330 people were killed and 6, 000 were injured in terrorist attacks across Israel. Jersusalem was particularly badly hit. The separation barrier was proposed as a security measure in response to the attacks.

But, she argued, the route of the separation barrier in East Jerusalem defies all security logic. Instead of separating Palestinians from Israelis, the barrier actually includes thousands of Palestinians on the Israeli side, and in some cases even goes through Palestinian villages, splitting them in two. Take a look again at the map. The red line is the route of the barrier, the brown dots are Palestinian villages, and the blue dots are Israeli villages. As you can see, there are lots of brown dots on the Israeli side of the barrier.

She showed me how the route of the separation barrier lies more or less on the municipal boundary (the yellow line) of East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1967. She took me to two villages, Abu Dis and Kafr Aqeb, which had been separated in two by a concrete wall. She spoke of families who have been split apart. 60, 000 Jerusalemites have found themselves on the "wrong" side of the wall. Her conclusion: the barrier is designed to change the demography of East Jerusalem and undermine the prospect of a viable Palestinian state.

Now to the settlements. First, I want to clarify, settlements are not a politically divisive issue in Israel. Both the left and right support settlement construction. In fact, as I learnt from the Israeli guy, more settlement projects were born when the left was in power. We went up to Mount Scopus to see the project of Ma'ale Adumim and the E1 zone (see the map above).

Ma'ale Adumim is the third largest settlement in the Palestinian territories. 35,000 Jewish Israelis live there and most of it was built on private Palestinian land. The Israeli government has plans to expand the municipal boundaries of Ma'ale Adumim and to build an extra 4, 000 housing units. The proposed municipal borders would effectively cut the northern part of the West Bank from the southern part because the only road that connects the two areas passes through zone E-1.

I asked whether the Palestinians could build an alternative road, but I was told that the area is mountainous and any alternative solution would be extremely difficult. Once again, I heard the same message, this project severely endangers the possibility for a viable Palestinian state.

I know that things can and do change: settlements can be evacuated and walls can come down. Just the other day, Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank (although, NOT in East Jerusalem). Nevertheless, the situation is pretty scary. Time could be running out for a two-state solution.

Are we prepared to abandon the idea of a Palestinian state? Are we aware of the consequences? What are we hoping will happen to the millions of Palestinians living in a divided West Bank?

32 days to go...