`It`s like living at the end of the world`

Dirty, dilapidated and desperate, al-Ram is typical of the Palestinian towns cut off by the barrier on Jerusalem`s eastern outskirts, reports Toni O`Loughlin

Sufian Odeh used to be able to see his cousin`s house across the street from his apartment window - until Israel built a wall of concrete down the middle of their neighborhood two years ago.

Standing eight metres high and just 13 metres from his building, it overshadows Sufian`s second-floor apartment like the wall of a prison, darkening this once thriving Palestinian district.

`When I look from the window and see the wall, I immediately close the blinds and smoke a cigarette. It`s like living at the end of the world,` says Sufian, who asked to change his name to preserve his family`s privacy.

His neighbours fled long ago, as the West Bank barrier crept down the main street of al-Ram, dividing families, separating children from schools and patients from clinics, and severing the road back to Jerusalem. Stranded outside Jerusalem by the barrier, al-Ram has become a virtual ghost town.

Palestinian customers who came to Al-Ram from Jerusalem`s centre in search of cheaper prices have disappeared, as have one-third of its 1,800 businesses.

Vast numbers of its 62,000 residents, unable to sell their homes, have gone. The abandoned shops, with their `for sale` signs, deserted streets and overgrown gardens are typical of the Palestinian towns cut off by the barrier on Jerusalem`s eastern outskirts.

Fearing permanent exile, many have moved back to Jerusalem.

Israel conquered east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza, in the Six Day war of 1967.

Claiming to unify the city, which was divided at the 1948 birth of the Jewish state, Israel expanded Jerusalem`s limits, tripling the territory inside the municipality.

It roped in 28 Palestinian villages, stretching east from the ancient walls of the old city deep into the West Bank.

Densely populated villages, such as al-Ram, were left outside the new boundaries. Those living within who would not swear allegiance to Israel in order to gain citizenship were issued blue identity cards granting them residency rights.

Around 250,000 Palestinians now carry the card, and make up one-third of Jerusalem`s population, But some 55,000 others - there are no precise figures - were left outside its boundaries.

Over time, in search of jobs and cheaper housing, many moved beyond the municipality, sometimes to West Bank cities such as Ramallah but often to villages including al-Ram.

Israel built the barrier to separate Israelis from Palestinians after 420 of its citizens died in terror attacks at the peak of the intifada, in 2002.

But in Jerusalem, the spiritual heart of the 60-year territorial conflict, the barrier has had the opposite effect, forcing Israelis together with Palestinians scrambling back in search of a toehold inside the holy city.

While east Jerusalemites resent Israel`s occupation, they are reluctant to give up their rights. They qualify for Israeli welfare and can travel around Israel.

`We will do anything to move to keep our blue ID, not because of love but because it gives us an easier life,` says Sufian.

From his kitchen, Sufian, can see the last gap in the barrier, through which he travels each day to work near Tel Aviv.

It already takes him hours to pass the local checkpoint, and he fears things are about to get much worse: Israel needs only to insert two more concrete blocks to seal the gap and shut al-Ram out for good.

When that happens, he will be forced to travel several miles to a new checkpoint, where thousands will queue each day.

He is on the verge of joining the exodus to the other side of the wall. `If I could find a house, even in a Jewish neighborhood, I would take it,` Sufian says.

Zahra Khalidi, from one of the oldest Palestinian families in Jerusalem, has already made the move.

`I can hardly keep my head above water,` she says.

Zahra moved to al-Ram in 1999, paying $60,000 (£30,000) for a flat with a view over Jerusalem`s municipality. As the barrier encroached down the street, cutting the value of her property to $35,000, she feared being exiled from the city where her family had lived for the past 900 years.

So she moved back, renting a small apartment in the Muslim quarter of the old city because she could not afford to buy. For the past seven months Zahra has been unemployed and is struggling to make ends meet.

Taxes and prices are higher, and rents have soared as tens of thousands of Palestinians have poured back, exacerbating the housing shortage.

Jerusalem`s municipality rarely grants Palestinians permission to build on their land and frequently demolishes structures built without permits, all the while defying the international community by approving new Jewish housing on the eastern side of the city.

Though Palestinians comprise one-third of the city`s population, Jerusalem`s municipality council consistently spends less than 10% of its budget in their neighborhoods.

Rubbish is strewn around the streets, roads are broken and unsealed, playgrounds and parks are scarce and ill maintained, and schools are run-down.

`It`s very dirty in the old city,` says Zahra. `They totally neglect this side of the city.`

But it is not just the Palestinians who have returned to Jerusalem`s centre who are suffering.

Ir Amim, an Israeli NGO dedicated to mitigating political tensions in Jerusalem, says all Jerusalem`s Palestinians are under growing pressure.

Associate director, Sarah Kreimer, says: `The poverty makes people prey to the more extremist elements.`

Jerusalem`s Palestinians have resorted to political violence on many occasions before, dispatching suicide bombers to Jerusalem`s commercial district.

Just last week, a Palestinian who had lived near the city for generations went on a rampage with a tractor, crushing cars, wounding 30 people and killing three Israelis

Ron Shatzberg, at the Economic Cooperation Foundation, a thinktank that advises Israel`s government on security, worries that more east Jerusalemites will attack in the future.

`When we close all of the entrances to Israel, terrorist organisations will put pressure on east Jerusalem Palestinians [to join them] because they are able to move around and they know Hebrew,` he says. `They will become the main target for recruiting.`

Most, however, are struggling to build the best lives they can amid turmoil and uncertainty.

`Whenever I see the wall, I can`t control this ugly feeling inside me. It`s hatred and anger,` says Sufian.
Many residents travel through a gap in the barrier to work, but Israel only needs to insert two more concrete blocks to seal it shut.

Check Out A related article featured here