RAMALLAH, West Bank, 14 May 2007 — The Palestinian village of Beer Naballa is a cage. It may be called “The Beer Naballa enclave” in the Israeli occupier’s clean language, but this cannot change the facts. It is a cage. Perhaps a compound. Another Israeli atrocity that emerged from the winding route of the separation wall.

In the past, the village was practically a Jerusalem suburb, as were the three neighboring villages. Today they are surrounded by bars and fences and concrete walls on every side, with only one gate connecting them to the outer world.

This route passes through a tunnel under Highway 45 and leads to the West Bank city of Ramallah. Not to Jerusalem, the center of the villagers’ lives until the compound was set up, but just to Ramallah.

From there and only from there are Palestinians permitted to try their luck at the Qalandia checkpoint in an effort to reach Jerusalem.

The “prisoners” are naturally not permitted to use Highway 45 and to travel wherever they like. This highway is prohibited for Palestinians. Only the “ruling power” is allowed to drive on it, not those being ruled. They can only crawl beneath it.

In the occupier’s polished language, the only gateway out of the compound bears the festive name of “Fabric of Life”.

Residents of the compound petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice against their incarceration. The court, headed by retired Chief Justice Aharon Barak, listened to them patiently and then ruled:

Indeed had the “Fabric of Life” road not been built, we believe that the fate of the fence in the Beer Naballa area would have been similar to the fate of the fence in the Alfei Menashe enclave (southeast of the Palestinian city of Qalqiliya where the High Court changed the route of the wall that enclosed Palestinian villages.)

Yet due to the “Fabric of Life” road, the situation before us is different...the link between the villages and the Ramallah area has been maintained by means of the Beer Naballa-Qalandia road. This road is open to traffic and it enables free, uninterrupted movement by residents of the area to the Ramallah area, or via the Qalandia crossing - to Jerusalem.

Following is a routine experience at the “Fabric of Life” on the way out of the Beer Naballa compound.

Detained for screwdriver: Thursday, May 10, 2007. It is the afternoon. A usual Israeli checkpoint has been set up on the “Fabric of Life” road. A long row of cars is lined up. There’s a long line beyond the checkpoint as well.

This is the unique Israeli military interpretation of the judge’s words on “free and uninterrupted movement.” And as is customary on the “Fabric of Life” road, people are also “detained for questioning”. It’s a type of local punishment, the fate of Palestinians who soldiers take a disliking to.

One of those “detained for questioning” is a taxi driver who was found to be carrying a screwdriver. Would it occur to anyone that an innocent taxi driver would possess a screwdriver? Thus, the poor little screwdriver was marked a “dangerous weapon”, and its owner detained. He has been detained for almost two hours.

Meanwhile the lines are growing longer, the usual chaos is evident, cars and people are passing by slowly, enjoying the fine “Fabric of Life”. The taxi driver pulls out a few sunflower seeds and throws the shells on the road.

What nerve! Only a Palestinian can be such an animal. Has anyone ever seen a Jew spit out sunflower seed shells in public? An Israeli soldier obsessed with cleanliness notices the abomination and quickly takes action.

In an angry tone of voice, he instructs the taxi diver to pick up the shells. The checkpoint is surrounded by military trash, but the fate of our trash is not the fate of local trash.

One of those present makes a comment to one of the soldiers, and the answer he received was, “OK, soon we’ll round up some more Palestinians to clean up.”

The taxi driver begins to sweep the road under the Israeli forces’ strict eye.

One has to be made of steel not to be swept up in past memories. Not a single soldier is outraged by the sight in front of them. Only two hours after being detained because of a screwdriver, the driver is released.