Israeli wall comes down as situation stabilizes (News Feature)

By Jeff Abramowitz Aug 17, 2010, 14:35 GMT

Jerusalem - And the wall came down to reveal the Palestinian town behind it.

Ten years after the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising, work has begun on removing the two-metre-high concrete wall on the edge of Gilo, a location in southern Jerusalem.

The Israelis call it a suburb, but Palestinians and the international community view it as a settlement since it is built on land captured from Jordan in the 1967 war.

The removal work began this week, after Israeli authorities concluded that the threat of sniper and mortar fire against Gilo is now a thing of the past.

'The security situation is now relatively stable in this area,' says Israeli military spokesman Captain Aryeh Shalicar. 'Cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian authorities is getting better and better. Definitely, it looks like things are more secure now.'

As he speaks, behind him cranes remove sections of the wall and plonk them down on a flatbed truck.

But although Shalicar admits that 'we have to believe we can live without the fence,' the Israelis are taking no chances. The removed sections are to be kept in storage, and will be re-erected should the need arise.

'As easy as it is to take down, it is easy to put it back again,' Shalicar notes.

The 2,000-metre-long wall is not part of the controversial separation fence Israel is building along the West Bank. Instead, it was erected after Gilo, with its 40,000 inhabitants, found itself unexpectedly on the front line of the Palestinian uprising which broke out in September 2000, during a deadlock in peace talks.

As the uprising gained momentum, Gilo came under regular fire, rifle and mortar, from militants positioned in the largely-Christian Palestinian town of Beit Jala, which lies just across a steep ravine.

By 2002, Gilo and been fired on more than 400 times. Nobody was killed, but apartments were damaged. The Israeli authorities belatedly installed bullet-proof glass in windows and began erecting the barrier.

The shooting on Gilo died down only after Israel launched its massive Operation Defensive Shield in late 2008/early 2009 in the West Bank.

'I don't know if this wall was really useful, but it made us feel more protected,' says a 48-year-old Gilo resident who gave her name only as Nomi.

She is, however, happy the wall is gone.

'Now I have a better view, but I hope there will be no shooting again,' she says.

'This wall contributed nothing,' another local resident, known only as Gadi, is quoted as saying in the Israeli media. 'In any case, it was put up in order to chase away curious people who came to see the shooting.'

But not everyone is relieved that within two weeks the structure will have disappeared completely.

'It's very scary,' says one unnamed Gilo resident. 'I'm afraid that after they take away this wall, the Palestinians will go back to attacking us.'

Whatever the effectiveness of the wall, it became part of the Gilo landscape, serving - in the way the Berlin Wall did - as a magnet for graffiti artists from all over Israel.

One imaginative artist even forewent the traditional graffito slogans and images to paint a mural of the view the wall concealed.

That view has been restored - partially. With the Gilo wall gone, residents can now gaze at the Beit Jala across the way, but also at the eight-metre high section of the West Bank separation barrier.

Building of that barrier - only around urban locations such as Beit Jala is it actually a wall - began in 2003, after a spate of suicide bombings in Israeli cities. There is currently no discussion among Israeli authorities over whether to remove it.