Israelis and Palestinians come together to protest against West Bank barrier

11.15am

ISRAEL/WEST BANK BOUNDARY - Scores of Israelis and Palestinians converged on a hilltop along the "Green Line" boundary on Saturday in a rare joint campaign against the intrusive path of Israel's West Bank barrier.

People from each side do not normally cross paths these days except at Israeli army checkpoints in occupied areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But Israelis and Palestinians in one boundary zone near Jerusalem have long been good neighbours and want to stay that way despite the blood spilled all around them since a Palestinian revolt broke out in 2000.

Israelis from suburban Mevasseret Zion and Palestinians from Beit Surik, a West Bank village, trekked to the Green Line to rally support for their joint case against the route of the barrier, the first of its kind, in Israel's High Court.

"We must face the sad fact that there will be a barrier," said Israeli activist Shai Dror. "Our goal must be to preserve our few kilometres of peace, to make it liveable for both sides, by getting the route changed."

On February 29, the High Court ordered work on the local segment of the barrier, of which 180km have been built to date, suspended while it considered the appeal. The next in a series of hearings was due on Sunday.

The wire-and-concrete barrier will be Israel's rampart against Palestinian suicide bombers, the government says.

Palestinian leaders call it a ploy to annex land with Jewish settlements that Israel took in a 1967 war.

But the political issues pale beside practical and personal ones for the people of Mevasseret Zion and Beit Surik.

The Israelis fear that the planned barrier's divergence from the boundary, cutting Palestinians off from precious olive groves, could turn the nearby villagers into embittered enemies and foment violence in an area that has been an oasis of calm.

The Palestinians contend that unless the barrier is rerouted along unused scrub slopes on the frontier closer to Mevasseret Zion, Beit Surik and a string of nearby villages also involved in the litigation would lose their livelihoods in a stroke.

PENDING HIGH COURT APPEAL

That is the gist of the court appeal filed by Beit Surik and seven adjacent villages early this year and joined by 30 Mevasseret Zion Israelis backed by some 700 on a petition and a group of Israeli security experts outside government.

Israeli officials counter that parts of the barrier must be erected well inside the West Bank to provide a security buffer.

Leaders of both communities equipped with maps delivered bilingual presentations to Saturday's gathering, mainly for the benefit of Israeli newcomers to the campaign, under a makeshift canopy to ward off a hot spring sun.

Palestinians handed out mineral water and cups of potent Arabic coffee in a gesture of traditional Arab hospitality. Knots of people from each side debated the issues and renewed acquaintances, sometimes using English as lingua franca.

"We are asking more of you to go to the Jerusalem court with our message since as Palestinians we are forbidden to go there," Tareq al-Sheikh, an olive grower, told Israeli listeners. "If there must be a wall, do it on the Green Line not in my garden."

The barrier has provoked increasing protests against bulldozers tearing up farmland in its path. Israeli troops guarding the sites have killed several Palestinian protesters.

Palestinians are not sanguine about the outcome in court, noting other cases filed so far on behalf of thousands of compatriots isolated by the twisting barrier had been rejected.

And wherever the barrier rises, it may well dry up another important source of income for local Palestinians -- migrant work as builders, gardeners and domestics in Mevasseret Zion.

Until the conflict erupted in 2000, local Israelis frequently visited adjacent West Bank villages to trade and shop. Israelis and Palestinians attended each other's weddings.

- REUTERS