Dahiet al-Bariid, as we’ve written before, is divided in two by Israel’s Wall.
Al-Monitor posted three photos of The Wall in Dahiet al-Bariid as part of a photo album on ten years of The Wall, published here. This photo shows The Wall as it runs up Ahmad Orabi street, dividing Dahiet al-Bariid into two parts, one on the “Jerusalem” side, and one in the West Bank:
Al-Monitor’s caption for this photo reads: “Two boys walk along the wall and past an army watchtower in Dahiat Al-Barid, a West Bank neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem. (photo by Sophie Claudet, Al-Monitor)”.
Yes, well, this exact spot has been granted, after an appeal to Israel’s Supreme Court [an appeal filed by some of the residents of this neighborhood, led by the Christian institutions there], has been ruled to be part of “Jerusalem” [meaning, Greater Jerusalem Municipality, which was created unilaterally by Israel a few weeks after the June 1967 War by carving out a crescent of West Bank neighborhoods running in an arc from Ramallah in the north almost to Bethlehem in the south, all around the Old City of East Jerusalem].
In February 2009, six months after the IDF military watchtower which can hardly been seen in this photo was put in place [in September 2008], sealing this part of The Wall, the IDF removed the awful ar-Ram checkpoint which was down the hill, making movement much easier into Jerusalem.
For the six long months between September 2008 and February 2009, there was only one way in and out, which was through the ar-Ram checkpoint, and at least 30 minutes waiting before leaving, even if only to go to the pharmacy or to buy some fresh vegetables or meat.
The military watchtower [“pillbox” was installed, in a terrible slow ballet choreographed under armed guard while 3 huge round cylinders were slowly driven out of Neve Yaakov, just up the street. It was the beginning of September [and the beginning of Ramadan 2008], and some members of a family were trapped in the “New Mosque” on the Jerusalem side. The armed guards told everybody watching to “go home and watch Baab al-Hara” [a popular Syrian miniseries playing for Ramadan]. But after about an hour, they eventually relented, and opened the doors on the two sides of the cylindrical military watchtower, so the father and his daughter could all make it home.
From that moment, there was no longer any direct passage to the West Bank, and to do that all traffic was redirected to the already-congested and truly terrible Qalandia Checkpint.
The 180 or so residents of this little triangle of the earth who have West Bank IDs, however, are only allowed to travel from here to Qalandia Checkpoint and back [they are free to move in the West Bank, once they cross the terrible Qalandia Checkpoint].
The IDF commander of Qalandia Checkpoint at the time the ar-Ram checkpoint was removed told me, however, that despite the Supreme Court ruling, the Army did not yet classify this neighborhood as Jerusalem — no, he said, it is a “seam zone” [Kaf ha-Teva in Hebrew, Manteqat Tamas in Arabic].
Dahiet al-Bariid [the place of the Post Office, now on the other side of The Wall] is one of the very few seam zones, if not the only one, located on the Jerusalem side of the Wall. As to its becoming part of Jerusalem administratively, the IDF Commander of Qalandia Checkpoint at the time told me, “We have to let the negotiators do their work”.
The negotiators haven’t even been negotiating for the last couple of years … so this could take a while
As I asked the Commander of Qalandia Checkpoint at that time, what is stopping the 180 people in the neighborhood from going to Jaafar’s, not far away in Beit Hanina, to do their shopping? “It is not allowed”, he replied. “It is not allowed — just like it is not allowed to drive 180 km per hour on the highway”. And, he explained, if they are caught/stopped, they can be expelled, right across Qalandia, though their homes and families are here.
- In an article accompanying her photos, Sophie Claudet wrote: “In June 2002, Israel undertook one the largest projects in its history: the construction of a separation barrier along the occupied West Bank to protect itself following a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks. The barrier — designated as “segregation wall” by Palestinians and “security fence” by the Israeli government — is a complex mix of electronic fencing, buffer zones and slabs of concrete measuring up to nine meters. More than half of the barrier has already been built and it will measure approximately 709 kilometers once completed. So far, 90% of the barrier consists of a two-meter high electronic fence and 10% of an eight to nine-meter-high concrete wall. The construction has cost $2.6 billion and $260 million per year in maintenance … the barrier digs deeply inside the West Bank and separates hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land, schools, places of work, hospitals and clinics. Israel has set up dozens of checkpoints and gates along the barrier to allow Palestinians to cross to the other side … In total, more than 9% of the West Bank will be on the “wrong” side of the wall, which Palestinians denounce as a land grab. In 2012, around 6,500 Palestinians live in the closed are between the Green Line and the barrier, which is also called the “seam zone.” Those aged 16 and above must apply for residential permits to continue to live in their homes. Once the barrier is completed 25,000 Palestinians will live in the seam zone”. This is published here.