JERUSALEM, 11 July 2005 — Around a quarter of the Palestinian population of Jerusalem faces being cut off from the rest of the holy city after Israel’s Cabinet approved a new route for its controversial West Bank wall yesterday. As Palestinians accused Israel of trying to shut down argument over the fate of occupied east Jerusalem, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the plan to pull out of the occupied Gaza Strip should last no more than two weeks.
The revised route of the wall will mean that some 55,000 residents of East Jerusalem, which was captured and annexed by Israel in 1967, will no longer be able to travel freely throughout the holy city.
Around 230,000 Palestinians live in the city. It will cut now through the Palestinian neighborhoods of Shaufat and Akab as well as the Qalandiya refugee camp on the eastern outskirts of the city.
Olmert insisted that citizens who found themselves outside the route of the wall would not lose access to services. “They will continue to be the beneficiaries of the social and municipal services which they are entitled to as holders of residency cards,” Olmert said, adding that building work around Jerusalem should finish in September.
Construction has been slowed down in the Jerusalem area following recent rulings by the Israeli Supreme Court that said the fundamental rights of some civilians were being infringed.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the move would undermine the peace process. “I do not believe this is helpful either to the peace process or to Israeli security,” Abbas told reporters. “It will put obstacles in the way of peace.”
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP that the move “has the potential to destroy the entire peace process” as it appeared that Israel was trying to impose its own solution on the status of Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, veteran Palestinian lawmaker Marwan Kanafani, a one-time adviser to Yasser Arafat and champion of internal reform, resigned yesterday to protest against growing insecurity and political malaise. Kanafani was the first parliamentarian to quit over an internal crisis that blew up before Arafat’s death last year and has persisted since Abbas was elected in January on a platform of change. “I hope this will attract the attention of the parliament, the government and the political factions to stop the internal deterioration and maintain the security of the homeland and the citizens,” Kanafani said in Gaza.
The resignation came three days after Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei defended his record before Parliament and won the approval of most of the 88-member assembly — though not Kanafani, a member of the dominant Fatah movement.
Palestinian leaders have faced growing demands for change from people tired of chaotic outbursts by gunmen, increasing crime, high level corruption and inefficiency after a revolt since 2000 that brought statehood no closer.
