Al-Walajeh …. Looks like Apartheid, Acts as Apartheid…….. It is Apartheid

On August 23, 2011, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected the appeal submitted by the residents of Al-Walajeh village, which calls upon the Israeli Army to reroute the Segregation Wall set to encircle the village for its catastrophic consequences that will hit the residents of the village along with their lands.

 

The aforementioned Israeli court decision indicated that the losses that the Palestinian residents of Al-Walajeh will incur are reasonable in front of the security benefits for the State of Israelâ, and accordingly the Israeli Army can resume working to build the Segregation Wall section in the western parts of the village. See the pictures of the construction in the aforementioned section:-

 

 

It is worth mentioning that the residents of Al-Walajeh village had submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court in December 2010, demanding the Israeli occupation Army to reroute the Segregation Wall running at the western part of the village. Earlier in August 2011, the same Israeli court issued a precautionary decision to halt the construction at the Segregation Wall location in Al-Walajeh until a final decision is issued on this regard, which was actually issued August 23, 2011.

 

The main Israeli pretext used by the court to block the petition of Al-Walajeh residents is that the Wall or fence saves life and what the court failed to see the detrimental effects of the Wall on the Palestinians and their livelihood. Moreover, the Wall as routed will cut off the cemetery and the agricultural lands of the village

 

One of the typical examples of the consequences of Israeli Apartheid System in Al-Walajeh village is the case of the local resident Mr. Omar Shananir whose house is located northeast of the village and will be totally trapped within an enclave, surrounded by the Segregation Wall from all sides, where the only access to/from his house to the village will be through an underground- tunnel. See the pictures below:

 

 

 

 

 

20 meters away from the planned route of the Apartheid Wall section northwest of Al-Walajeh, sits a 5000 years old Olive tree, in a piece of land owned by the local resident Mr. Salah Abu Ali who refuses to leave his land and prefer to stay beside the tree. In an interview with ARIJ field workers Mr. Abu Ali indicated that: When I realized that the historical tree in my land is threatened to be uprooted for the Segregation Wall routed to encircle the village, I decided to allocate all my daytime guarding the tree, and my family Abu Ali Family, and the entire village supported me to stay in the land to protect the tree from the Israeli Army bulldozers. See the pictures below:

According to the updated Wall plan of April 30, 2007, the Wall will place Al-Walajeh village in an isolated enclave, sealed off from all directions, east, west, north and south and from the neighboring Palestinian communities; Battier, Hussan, Beit Jala and from Bethlehem city center. The Wall, according to the map, was shifted northwards to include the neighborhood of ‘Ein Al Juwaiza on the Palestinian side of the Wall, but sealed off the village completely from its southern part with a 2.5 km long Wall that will run alongside bypass road number 436.

 

In Total, the Israeli segregation Wall plan will extend for 7.9 km on the lands of Al-Walajeh, of which 3.5 km will be barbed wires. The Wall will isolate a total sum of 2210 dunums of the village’s lands that is 50.2 % of the total village area. The road protection strip (the road security buffer zone) will cause the isolation of an additional 1100 dunums of lands from Al-Walajeh village, where these lands will fall south of the Wall and will be inaccessible to the Palestinian residents. Currently, 1.2 km of concrete wall exists around the village, 1.2 km is under construction and 5.5 km are in planning phase to be constructed around the village before the end of 2012.