Ordie
06-05-2007, 01:39 AM
I thought it was a good read.
It confirms my belief that West Bank Palestinians would rather live in an Israeli hell than a paradise promised by Arafat.
Change cast in concrete
The barrier Israel is building along the West Bank has had an unforeseen effect: Palestinians are flooding back into Jerusalem to bolster their claim to the holy city.
By Ken Ellingwood, LA Times Staff Writer
June 4, 2007
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The fence is not political. It's not a border. It's only a security fence.
— Nezah Mashiah, Israeli Defense Ministry official who oversees the barrier project
I am looking forward for my children. . . . They will stay Arabs, but not in the Palestinian Authority. I have fought. . . . I don't want them to live the same life I went through.
— Issa Natsheh, Palestinian
Jerusalem — ISSA Natsheh watched warily from his West Bank suburb when Israel began building a concrete barrier along the fringes of Jerusalem four years ago.
As the partition slowly took shape, Natsheh grew increasingly worried that he would be cut off for good from the city of his birth. Powerless to stop the construction, Natsheh did what he could: He moved back into Jerusalem.
Two years after the move, Natsheh lives with a wife, three small daughters and a newborn son in a concrete-block shack on a trash-strewn hillside north of downtown. He built the structure without Israeli permission and has covered the front with a black tarp to disguise it so authorities won't tear it down.
Thousands of Palestinians like Natsheh, lured to the West Bank over the years by family ties, cheap property and fewer building regulations, are scrambling back into Jerusalem.
The unforeseen wave of migration has increased the Arab presence, bolstering a broader trend that has seen the Palestinian population grow to more than a third of Jerusalem's total. It is one sign of how the barrier is reshaping the holy city and further complicating any effort to settle competing claims to it.
More:[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-barrier4jun04,0,3466937,full.story (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-jerusalem-graphic2b,0,6770227.graphic)
It confirms my belief that West Bank Palestinians would rather live in an Israeli hell than a paradise promised by Arafat.
Change cast in concrete
The barrier Israel is building along the West Bank has had an unforeseen effect: Palestinians are flooding back into Jerusalem to bolster their claim to the holy city.
By Ken Ellingwood, LA Times Staff Writer
June 4, 2007
[/URL]
The fence is not political. It's not a border. It's only a security fence.
— Nezah Mashiah, Israeli Defense Ministry official who oversees the barrier project
I am looking forward for my children. . . . They will stay Arabs, but not in the Palestinian Authority. I have fought. . . . I don't want them to live the same life I went through.
— Issa Natsheh, Palestinian
Jerusalem — ISSA Natsheh watched warily from his West Bank suburb when Israel began building a concrete barrier along the fringes of Jerusalem four years ago.
As the partition slowly took shape, Natsheh grew increasingly worried that he would be cut off for good from the city of his birth. Powerless to stop the construction, Natsheh did what he could: He moved back into Jerusalem.
Two years after the move, Natsheh lives with a wife, three small daughters and a newborn son in a concrete-block shack on a trash-strewn hillside north of downtown. He built the structure without Israeli permission and has covered the front with a black tarp to disguise it so authorities won't tear it down.
Thousands of Palestinians like Natsheh, lured to the West Bank over the years by family ties, cheap property and fewer building regulations, are scrambling back into Jerusalem.
The unforeseen wave of migration has increased the Arab presence, bolstering a broader trend that has seen the Palestinian population grow to more than a third of Jerusalem's total. It is one sign of how the barrier is reshaping the holy city and further complicating any effort to settle competing claims to it.
More:[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-barrier4jun04,0,3466937,full.story (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-jerusalem-graphic2b,0,6770227.graphic)