AL QUDS: Palestinians living in east Jerusalem who face being cut off from the rest of the holy city by Israel’s giant West Bank barrier fear that they will soon become second class citizens with reduced access to jobs, schools and health care. The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved plans which will see around 55,000 of the 230,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem stuck on the far side of the barrier from September, in a move it justified on security grounds.

Authorities have pledged to ensure that the move will not affect access to services to which Jerusalem resident card holders are entitled, while the city’s mayor Uri Lupolianski said some 1.7 million dollars will be set aside to ensure residents do not lose out.

But for people living in the refugee camp of Shuafat, who will be separated from their fellow Jerusalemites come the autumn, the future looks grim.

“This wall will mean increasing numbers of unemployed because many people used to go to work in Jerusalem,” said community leader Jamal Awad.

“It will affect their education because many pupils used to attend secondary school nearer the centre of the city after going to primary school in Shuafat, and it will have an impact on health care as all hospitals are in Jerusalem.”

Situated some five kilometres (three miles) east of the city centre, around 20,000 people live in Shuafat — either refugees or the offspring of refugees who lost their homes after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Muhsen Natshe has lived with his wife Majeda for the last decade in the camp but their house is about to be demolished by the Israeli army to make way for the barrier — described as a terror prevention fence by the Israelis but which takes the form of a towering concrete wall around Shuafat.

Natshe, 42, said he had tried to block the work of army bulldozers but his house looks doomed after receiving a demolition order from the army.

“I can’t sleep at night,” he said. “The Israelis have asked me to apply for compensation and so we can fix on a price but I don’t want their money.”

His wife Majeda said the noise of the bulldozers and mechanical diggers, which have already begun work in her neighbourhood, was terrifying her children.

“Each time our beds start shaking, we know the bulldozer is approaching for work,” she said. “They (the Israelis) are tightening the grip around us day after day. What kind of a future or destiny do they want for our children?”

While the barrier and its route have triggered widespread international criticism, they enjoy majority support from Israelis who have witnessed dozens of suicide bombings over the course of the near five-year Palestinian uprising.

Israel insists the fence has no political connotations and rejects Palestinian claims that the barrier is designed to pre-empt the boundaries of their promised future state.

The Palestinian Authority, however, reacted to Sunday’s announcement by accusing Israel of wanting to shut down discussion over the future status of Jerusalem which has long been one of the thorniest issues of their conflict.—AFP