Good Fences/Good Neighbors in Mideast?
Oct. 1 -- Walid Ayad is in the middle of renovating his hotel in the Abu Dis neighborhood of East Jerusalem, but an obstacle is popping up — literally.
The Israeli government is working on a 225-mile-long security barrier designed to protect its citizens — and it's projected to run right down the middle of the Palestinian's hotel.
"They cut the hotel in two pieces, the gardens will be on one side and the hotel will be on the other side," he said.
In a land where every acre and every action is fraught with meaning, Ayad's complaint does not stand alone. Thousands of other lives will be affected by the barrier — and it's becoming a major point of contention between the United States and Israel.
This summer, President Bush called the security barrier a "problem," and last month, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the administration "wouldn't rule out" subtracting the money Israel spends on the barrier from its $9 billion loan package.
The first 90 miles of the fence have already been built, and the Israeli Cabinet today approved an extension of the barrier that would loop around the sprawling Jewishsettlement of Ariel about 12 miles inside the West Bank. The extension will not, however, be connected to the existing security fence, which runs further west, closer to Israel.
The Israeli government began construction in June 2002 in response to the latest intifada, which has killed about 3,500 people — 2,600 Palestinians and 850 Israelis.
And while Ayad is upset, Mina Fenton, an Israeli from the Jerusalem Municipal Council, has greeted it with relief.
"We must protect ourselves, we can't let any infiltration of terrorists and suiciders who are going just to murder and injure innocent citizens," she said.
Abandoning Diplomacy?
One of the main reasons why the barrier has become so hotly contested is that it fails to exactly follow the Green Line, Israel's pre-1967 border with the West Bank. It encompasses a number of the largest Jewish settlements, and some critics have termed it a land grab.
Popular Reads
ABC News Live