ReportageSometimes electric fence, sometimes high concrete blocks, the “security barrier” built illegally by Israel in 2002 has relegated some of the Palestinian inhabitants outside the physical borders of Jerusalem. This is the case in Abu Dis, in the West Bank, whose population has been deprived of precious access to the Holy City.
As far back as his memories go, Hamza Erekat has always seen huge concrete blocks blocking his horizon. This young Palestinian is 20 years old. He was born the year Israel began building what everyone here calls “the racist separation wall”. The plot falls right in his garden, under the window of the room he shares with his three brothers, in Abu Dis, in the center of the West Bank.
In the summer, with his family and friends, they often dine on the roof. From up there, beyond the concrete blocks, they see very distinctly Jerusalem, very close, the Dome of the Rock dominating the old city with its golden dome, opposite. “My father worked there, there was his daily life. We never had the chance to see that life.” Hamza Erekat sighs, timidly brushing back his locks of hair.
He visited the Holy City as a child, then went there another time to have an operation. What took his father ten minutes by car before the wall was built took him half a day each time: the grueling passages at the checkpoint, the bus, the wait… After 2015 and a wave of knife attacks, the Israelis have tightened the rules, permits have become even rarer.
A wall of 700 kilometers
At the end of April, during Ramadan, with friends, Hamza climbed a ladder and managed to get to the other side. Accomplices had cut the barbed wire that overhangs the concrete palisades. ” It was crazy ! We were hundreds. Before, I was afraid to go up, we were afraid to meet soldiers, says the student. We went to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque. » He smiles, then descends from the terrace. In the garden, the air is heavy at the end of the morning: the wind no longer passes, blocked by the concrete.
“It’s impossible to measure everything we’ve lost. We lost land, our employment pool, our education and health centers, which were all in Jerusalem. And we lost lives. » Abdelsalam Ayad, Mayor of Abu Dis
Israel decided to build the wall during the second Intifada, in 2001, in the midst of a wave of suicide attacks, and the first blocks were erected in 2002. Today, it is still not finished. Designated in Hebrew by the euphemism “security barrier”, this imposing military building winds over more than 700 kilometers, 85% of which is inside the occupied West Bank, nibbling at Palestinian land or isolating agricultural land.
In the eyes of international law, this complex system combining concrete blocks, electronic fences with sensors, barbed wire, fences and pits, guard towers and cameras is illegal. The Jewish state claims to defend itself in this way from Palestinian attacks. “The wall is not there for security reasons, it is an operation to draw borders, decided by a single party [Israël]in the West Bank, explains Palestinian geographer Khalil Tafakji. In Jerusalem, the wall was erected to exclude Palestinian residents. »
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