Harriet Sherwood: How the West Bank barrier has starved business and community

"..... Almost all the businesses in the thriving village between Jerusalem and Ramallah closed. Palestinians from East Jerusalem who had bought or rented houses and apartments fled back to the city rather than endure a long roundabout journey, via the massive Qalandiya checkpoint, to jobs which previously had been 10 minutes drive away. Abandoned, shuttered and looted apartment blocks and businesses are now the defining feature of Bir Nabala.

The area was completely encircled by the wall, leaving one road open. Bir Nabala, said Sabah, used to be "a central place, right in the middle", a commercial hub between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Now it is a desolate wasteland.

According to a new report, The Long Term Impact of the Separation Barrier, by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, the isolation of Bir Nabala "has caused a mass exodus from the village, abandonment of residential neighbourhoods and economic stasis".

In general, says the report, the barrier has led to "numerous infringements of the human rights of Palestinians, over and above the direct damage done by its construction – including property rights, the right to free movement, the right to a reasonable standard of living and collective right to self-determination."

B'Tselem calls on the Israeli government to dismantle all sections of the barrier already built inside the West Bank and halt further construction.

The report also details the impact of the barrier on Palestinians caught in the "seam zone", the area between the internationally-recognised Green Line and the route of the wall or fence. When the barrier is completed, 9.4% of Palestinian territory will be on the Israeli side.

A complex system of permits is required for Palestinians who need to cross the barrier, in either direction, to reach land, jobs, businesses, educational or health facilities.

Israel says the route of the barrier is determined by security needs, and that its construction is the reason for the decline in attacks by Palestinian militants inside Israel.

Sabah smiles bitterly at this explanation. "Israel built the wall for political reasons, to take the land, not security," he says. Without the wall, he reckons the value of his land and building would have doubled by now. "Now no one will buy it. There is no future for this village unless the wall is removed." "  Harriet Sherwood in Bir Nabala

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/05/west-bank-barrier-starved-business-communities

How the West Bank barrier has starved business and community

A thriving wedding venue in Bir Nabala is among many concerns cut off by a policy that turned a thriving village into a ghost town

Bir Nabala was once a thriving community, but the West Bank barrier cut it off from Jerusalem and turned it into a ghost town. Source: B'Tselem Link to this video

Residents of the East Jerusalem suburb of Bir Nabala tell how their lives have been affected by the West Bank separation barrier, which reached the community in 2006. As the 8-metre-high concrete walls encircled the township separating it from the rest of East Jerusalem, businesses declined, leaving a derelict ghost town