Palestinian youths play football in a field near Israel's controversial barrier separating the Palestinian village of Anata in the West Bank from Jerusalem. Once the ball crosses the separation barrier, it remains there. (AFP/Abbas Momani)
After the 1967 war, Israel annexed Anata along with the rest of Arab east Jerusalem in a move not recognised by any other government.
The Palestinians demand east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and the city's status has been one of the most intractable issues in the Middle East peace process since its beginnings in the early 1990s.
Obeidi's neighbourhood illustrates the disfigurement of the city over the past two decades, as the peace process has repeatedly collapsed.
The area of Anata closest to the wall was called the Neighbourhood of Peace after the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords.
Now residents can hear earthmovers on the other side of the fence expanding the sprawling Pisgat Zeev settlement, a built-up residential area with neat rows of apartment blocks and shopping malls.
Israel has rebuffed Palestinian demands that it halt all settlement activity in east Jerusalem ahead of any new peace talks, despite months of US pressure to restart negotiations suspended when it launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip in late 2008.
Around 12,000 people live in the Neighbourhood of Peace, most of them holding Jerusalem IDs which were given to the vast majority of the city's Arab residents when they declined Israeli citizenship after the 1967 annexation.
"We called it the Neighbourhood of Peace because we thought that peace was at hand," says Musa al-Qasrawi, 58, a local community organiser. "But instead of peace we got a wall."
Qasrawi carries a West Bank ID and so cannot enter Jerusalem without a special permit, but all the members of his family have Jerusalem IDs.
"They can go to Jerusalem, but I can't," he says. "Our house is divided in two."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100425/lf_afp/mideastconflictjerusalembarriersports
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