Al-Aqsa mousqe behind the wall

One week after Israel celebrated it`s 60th independence the Palestinians mark the day of "Tragedy" the "Nakba".

I travelled across Israel`s security barrier or as it`s better known the Wall to the other side of Jerusalem to Abu-Dis.

The wall that seperates east Jerusalem from the western part  was built more or less on the pre 1967 border however in Abu-Dis the wall has seperated families and cut them off completly from Jerusalem including the Al aqsa mousqe where they used to pray every friday, this situation has changed their lives completly and is threating to take it`s tall on any future agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

I met with Abu-Dis mayor Eng.Ibrahim Jaffal that spoke about the suffering of his residents since the wall cut them off from eveything they know, even water that is pumped by Israel from wells in Abu-Dis is taken to Jerusalem and later sold back to my town say the mayor.

There families that have half of their house on one side of the wall and the other half the other half  so for Israels so called security we have to travell through checkpoints and travell for ouhrs to get to schools and Hospitals on the other side this is terrible.

Later that day while walking along the wall i noticed on man living 3 meters from the wall his name is Luay Erakat he told me of life today and what it was before the wall was put up.

We climbed up to Luays roof where he pointed out pine trees just across the wall not more than 5 meters away and sayed that was where they used to go for barbq`s and family gatherings before the wall his sister is living on the other side of the wall and to get to her he must get special permits from Israel and that is a procdure that will take months, so she travells to abu-dis 3 ouhrs each way to see them.

Luay says he hasn`t been on the other side and visited Al Aqsa mousqe for 5 years now and the view from his bedroom window used to be of the old city of jerusalem and today its concrete of the wall 3 meters away.

Only last week soldiers came to this very roof we are sitting on and spent three days up here , they told us that jewish settlers are haveing a party across the wall in one of the houses they purchased lately and we are protecting them from here .

Luay says:" The soldiers left after three days but he still here living next to this wall, inshallah with gods help there will be some major shifts of global powers and America will go down and Israel with it and so will this wall."

The wall was put up by Israel after 3 years of suicide attacks al across the country and especialy in western Jeruslam most of the wall is actually a fence but in urban areas like Abu - Dis its an ugly concrete wall, since the creation of this wall Israel says that attacks on Israelis went down 90% .