JofGold's Summer Fellowship

ON THIS HOT DAY in Jerusalem, I decided to join a group tour of the seamline of Jerusalem. The seamline is the bondary that separates the neighborhoods in Jerusalem from the suburbs of Jerusalem. After 1967, when Israel annexed a greater Jerusalem, which included the Old City, Gilo & Har Homa to the south, and past Neve Ya'acov and Ramot to the north, the city also gained several Arab neighborhoods, like Beit Hanina to the north and Sur Baher to the south, including smaller villages in East Jerusalem. We first visited Gilo, which was not built up right after the land was annexed but rather in the past decade. It wasnt't until the second intifada that Gilo was hit by mortars and sniper fire coming from accross the valley in Beit Jala and Bethlehem.

WE WERE INFORMED by Miri Eisen, a former IDF Colonel, that Palestinian snipers would shoot from the courtyard of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem at Gilo houses, synagogues and kindergardens. Tha's why Gilo residents demanded that a cement wall be put around the neighborhood to protect the houses and buildings on the edge of the cliff overlooking the valley that separates the Jerusalem manisipality from Beit Jala and Bethlehem.

THIS IS where Israel is finishing to build the separation barrier, wall, or fence depending on the language you use. The residents of Gilo painted their cement blocks with various scenic views and happy images to replace the views lost because of the Palestinian sniper fire. Then we went to Har Homa, which is a newly buit and still being finished area of Jerusalem where the security barrier is a series of fences with gates for farmers to harvest their olive trees. The barrier has saved lives and as a result of the barrier, the number of suicide attacks have dropped significantly.

NEXT WE traveled to the Qalandiya Checkpoint, where we stood before the actual checkpoint and looked into the road to Ramallah, where yellow Palestinian taxicabs differing from the usual white Israeli taxicabs were lined up to transport Palestinians from Ramallah to the checkpoint where they could cross by foot. Then after the crossed by foot, they could get into a car and exit the checkpoint with a final check before entering the manisipality of Jerusalem.

FINNALY WE MADE it to the Nabil Samwil, or the tomb of the prophet Samuel, where there is a synagogue which used to be a mosque and church befoere being annexed by Israel. It was a really sunny and clear day! From the roof, we could see to the south the Gush Etzion block mountains next to Bethlehem and to the north the neighboring Palestinian village of Jib (Israeli side of the barrier) and the settlements of Har Shmuel and Givon Hahadasha, both with the distinctive red roofs of the Jewish homes. We were also next to the intersection of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot and the Palestinian village of Beit Iksa, where it is only separated by a small valley, yet one is in Israel as a part of Jerusalem and the other is a small village in the West Bank. The Israeli Surpeme Court ruled that the barrier will be in that valley to leave Beit Iksa inside the West Bank.