A-Sawahrah a-Sharqiyah and a-Sheikh Sa’ed isolated from rest of East Jerusalem
May 25, 2015
A-Sheikh Saed checkpoint. Photo: 'Amer 'Aruri, B'Tselem, 11 Feb. 2015
The villages of a-Sheikh Saed and a-Sawahrah a-Sharqiyah have been artificially cut off from East Jerusalem by an eight-meter-high wall. Before this partition was built, the two villages formed a contiguous urban bloc with East Jerusalem and, in particular, with the villages of Jabal al-Mukabber and a-Sawahrah al-Gharbiyah to its south with which they shared extensive family, commercial and cultural ties. A-Sheikh Saed is home to some 2,000 residents, and a-Sawahrah a-Sharqiyah, situated some two kilometers to its north, has a population of approximately 6,000.
In 1967, immediately after Israel occupied the West Bank, it annexed extensive areas east of these villages to the municipal area of Jerusalem. Although the two villages were not included in the area annexed, during the first few decades after annexation this distinction had no impact on the residents lives. Passage between the annexed area and the remainder of the West Bank was routine and unremarkable. East Jerusalem served as the urban center for the residents of these two villages, with many of them working in the city. It also provided the residents health and education services. In addition, people who lived in the annexed area would sometimes move into these villages.
This reality changed in the mid-1990s, when Israel began to separate the villages from the area of East Jerusalem by means of obstructions and checkpoints. In 2003, a route for the Separation Barrier in the area was decided, and on 26 August 2003 work began or erecting a temporary barbed wire fence. The residents of Sheikh Saed appealed the course fixed, and in March 2006 the Appellate Committee for the Separation Barrier accepted their appeal. The committee found that in historical terms, Sheikh Saed forms a part of Jabal al-Mukabber, which lies within the area of Jerusalem, and the route of the barrier was disproportionate and violated the rights of Sheik Saeds residents to life, liberty and dignity. The Appellate Committee instructed the state to reexamine the course of the barrier in the area. However, the state appealed this decision to the High Court of Justice, arguing that the committee had ignored the security-related ramifications inherent in an alternative course that would annex the village to the area of Jerusalem. In 2010 the High Court of Justice accepted the states petition, thereby approving the course of the Separation Barrier in the area.
The construction of the Separation Barrier separated the two populations in one fell swoop, leaving Jerusalem residents east of the barrier and the residents of a-Sawahrah a-Sharqiyah and a-Sheikh Saed to its west. Nearly a decade later, the residents of the villages remain isolated and disconnected from their families, places of work and service centers on the other side of the Separation Barrier.
remainder: http://www.btselem.org/jerusalem/20150526_isolation_of_a_sawahrah_a_sharqiyah_and_a_sheikh_saed