05 May 2004	Wednesday	14 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

SHEIKH SAAD: Even garbage cannot enter Jerusalem freely from the withering Palestinian village of Sheikh Saad, whose stone houses straddle the city's boundary with the West Bank.

Instead many villagers toss their rubbish down a hill by the side of the road that used to connect Sheikh Saad with Jerusalem - where the town's babies are born and villagers are buried when they die.

"This is a prison," said Muhammed Abdo, 62. "If someone dies, we have to get permission to bury them." A year-and-a-half ago, Israel blocked off the only road leading to the village of 2,000 people with a dirt and rock barricade. Israel's West Bank barrier, when it is built, will cut it off completely, villagers and rights activists say.

In Palestinian areas like Sheikh Saad that lie just outside the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem - holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians - residents say the barrier will cut them off from the cultural, political and religious centre of their life.

Israel says the barrier is necessary to keep out suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a land grab. To please Washington, Israel is shifting some sections of the barrier's route to ensure it does not cut so deeply into West Bank land captured by the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East war.

But that is little comfort for the villagers in Sheikh Saad. They want to be inside Jerusalem, not the West Bank. Villagers say they feel they are a part of Arab East Jerusalem - also taken by Israel in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized internationally - even if most carry identity cards labelling them as residents of the West Bank.

"Jerusalem is calling: Arabs, where are you?" graffiti on a village wall says in a plea for help.

GHOST TOWN: Construction of new homes in Sheikh Saad has stopped, leaving some houses as empty shells. Cars cannot leave or enter. Some shops have closed and unemployment is rampant.

More than a quarter of the village's residents have abandoned homes for East Jerusalem in the past two years, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. When basic necessities - from cooking gas to medical supplies - enter Sheikh Saad, they have to be physically carried over the dirt mound that blocks the village's mouth.

"The planned route of the separation barrier in the area will block the only road leading to the village with a wall," B'Tselem said in a report on Sheikh Saad. "The building of the wall will force the residents to choose between living as prisoners in their village or leaving their homes."

Palestinians call the wire-and-concrete network of barriers a land grab to deny them a viable state because it often extends well into the West Bank to take in Jewish settlements. "This will be the end, not just for me but for the entire village," said Abu Rami Aweisat, who owns a paint shop near the village's entrance. "If someone gets sick here, they could die."

"All our interests are in Jerusalem, our schools, our graves, our hospitals. The electricity is from Jerusalem, the water is from Jerusalem. All our ties are there. Our families are in Jerusalem," he said.

NO TIES TO WEST BANK: Sheikh Saad villagers say the barrier will split families as those with Jerusalem identity cards flee the town to find work, leaving relatives with West Bank residency cards behind.

B'Tselem says a sliver of Sheikh Saad - or about 15 houses - lies within Jerusalem's boundaries. Seven straddle the line. But most homes are in the West Bank, although a steep descent in the rugged landscape impedes access. Residents say the barrier will make the town a no-man's land, with access neither to Jerusalem nor to the West Bank.

The Israeli army said it would build a road to a nearby West Bank village to avoid isolating the town and the barrier would be completed only once the road was finished.

A lawyer representing village residents, Ghiath Nassir, said he had obtained a court injunction barring barrier construction in Sheikh Saad pending a legal decision. An army spokesman said villagers would ultimately have limited access to Jerusalem.

"Now we are just smoking and unemployed," said Hassan Allan, adding that the town's soccer team split up when players moved away. "It's over. We can't move." Like other residents, he worried village life would simply fade away once the barrier is built. "It will be like an earthquake. We will move back to the stone age," he said. -Reuters