The Israeli controversial barrier has divided hundreds of Palestinian families

By Samer Khuwayera, IOL Correspondent 

NABLUS, January 31 (IslamOnline.net) – Many Palestinians families will not be united this year to celebrate Eid Al-Adha because of Israel's racist separation wall, which snakes through vast swathes of Palestinian lands.

Palestinians living near the Green Line, which currently separates the West Bank and Israel, will take the brunt of the controversial barrier, depriving them of seeing their next of kin and loved ones.

Palestinians have now to travel tens of kilometers and obtain Israeli permits to visit their families, who are just ten minutes away.

Redwan Mohammad, who lives in the village of Arab Buna, west of Jenin, said Israel has completed the construction of the wall in the village, dividing it into two separate parts.

He said his brother-in-law's house, which was just steps away, is now as far as 30 30km and a long two-hour drive to reach.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned in a report last November that the wall would lead to severe humanitarian consequences for more than 680,000 Palestinians.

In October, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution demanding Tel Aviv to "stop and reserve" the construction of its controversial barrier.

The wall, which presets the borders of a promised Palestinian state, will eventually snake some 700 kilometers along the West Bank and leave even larger swathes of its fertile territory on the Israeli side.

The first phase of the barrier was completed in July 2003 in the northern West Bank.

The defiant Israeli government of Ariel Sharon approved last month a new 100-million-dollar section of the wall.

Vanishing Smiles

Elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territories, fears and sadness have hijacked the smiles of the Palestinians this Eid, which come again under the crippling Israeli occupation and blockade.

"Our days all look the same…Tens of thousands of Palestinians are living under the mercy of checkpoints and their cities and villages have been closed for three years," Ameen Raja, from the West Bank city of Nablus, lamented.

"Add to that, dozens of Palestinian youths in Israeli jails, orphans and bereaved families…So what Eid are you talking about?"

According to recent surveys of the Palestinians Statistics Authority, 81.5 percent of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and 50.5 percent in the West Bank are living below the poverty line.

The unemployment rate also hit unprecedented 63.5 percent against only 11 percent before the Israeli closure of the Palestinian territories after the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000.