'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Sharon's wall system in pictures

One week ago today, I spent the morning driving round parts of the western portion of Ramallah governorate with Anita Abdallah and a couple of other people. You can read a little about what we saw there toward the end of this post.

Here is one picture of the inside of Deir Ghassaneh, a lovely hilltop village that is home to many members of the Barghouthi family, and the site of the grave of the late Bashir Barghouthi, a great Palestinian thinker and social activist.

This is a picture of the big yellow gate the Israelis have installed at the base of the only road that leads to Deir Ghassaneh and four other villages. Note the scenic watchtower in the background! There is a military base and a growing-as-we-speak Israeli settlement right nearby.

On the day we were there, the gate was, thankfully, open. But whenever the Israelis choose to close it, they do; and sometimes it has been closed for many days in a row. Then, the people of the five villages have great difficulties getting to jobs, markets, schools, or doctor's appontments in the nearby towns of Ramallah and Bir Zeit.

Here is a picture of Sharon's 24-foot-high "Bigger than Berlin" concrete wall as it slices straight through the (Palestinian) eastern suburbs of Jerusalem. We're looking at the wall here from the Aizariyeh side. My Palestinian friends told me that in some places, the local residents use cranes to lift kids over the Wall so they can get to school, etc. I'm not sure you could do that for Granny if she needs to go to a doctor's appointment....

Finally, here is a really poignant picture of one section of the Wall that's on the point of being completed. This is to the north of Aizariyeh, at the point where Sharon's plan is leaving room for the the massive Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Adumim to be "included" in his crazy-quilt Jerusalem perimeter.