Israel's new barrier cuts old ties

It's no dream house, the cinderblock hut Sharif Omar now calls home, but he won't leave it anytime soon.

When the West Bank farmer and his wife married 36 years ago, they moved in with his brother. Mr. Omar promised one day to build her a house of her own. This year, he finished it, moved the family in and promptly left for this squat shed in his olive groves, not far from 31 other families camping on their own farms.

It's an exodus born of determination. Israel's separation barrier slices through Jayyus, neatly severing the town from its fields. Israel has taken local land in the past and farmers here worry the barrier's path is the first step toward the loss of their livelihood. They aim to hold on.

Jayyus is just one of 65 towns and cities caught in the barrier's winding path. Still a fraction of its eventual length, the barrier is dividing communities, disrupting access to hospitals and schools and dislocating the ties between people, their land, and scarce water supplies.

Israel has defended its creation of the barrier as a security measure, saying its formidable presence is needed to stop would-be suicide bombers. It denies that its construction has been motivated by an interest in controlling the borders of any future Palestinian state, as critics charge. It cites instead the 817 Israelis killed by Palestinian attacks since the beginning of the intifada.

But even as international groups begin studying the barrier's long-term effects, its chokehold on the northern West Bank economy is already clear. "Overall, it is feared that the Wall will isolate, fragment and, in some cases, impoverish those affected by its construction," says a recent report overseen by international donors including the US Government, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. "The wall may severely constrain the delivery of basic social services and commercial exchange - and certainly will do so ... if movement through the Wall is seriously hampered."

Workers finished the barrier's first phase in July, leaving behind a dusty 87-mile scar along the northern West Bank. In its wake, Israeli, Palestinian and international groups have been assessing the impact.

• More than 200,000 Palestinians are trapped on the Israeli side of the barrier or it cuts through their town, as in Jayyus.

• In the first phase of construction, barrier workers demolished 85 commercial buildings, destroyed at least 19 miles of water networks and uprooted 102,320 trees, 60,000 of which Israel replanted.

• Eighty-five percent of the land lost under the barrier's footprint came from Palestinian landowners, 15 percent from Israelis.

• Jayyus is just one of 51 villages isolated from most of their land. Twenty-five report no access to their land.

• The barrier's detours into the West Bank take almost 30,500 acres of land onto the Israeli side - nearly 2 percent of the West Bank.

When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with President George Bush in June, he said Israel would make every effort ensure that the fence does not encroach on Palestinian villages.

Yet the numbers above, from Israel's Defense Ministry, the Seamline Administration, which is building the barrier, and the Palestinian Environmental NGO Network, convey only minimally the challenges ahead for local people.

To get a sense of the barrier's impact, you have to think in terms of movement - the key to a healthy economy. In these small towns, people must travel to reach markets, schools, hospitals and jobs.

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