Haaretz
Tamuz 3, 5765
The
separation fence surrounding the Jerusalem area will cut off some 55,000
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem from the rest of the city, the
government ministers decided during the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday.
The number includes more 3,000 school children, who will have to
pass through the fence in order to get to school.
The government
also decided on September 1 as the new deadline for completing the
construction of the fence, which will leave the Shu'afat refugee camp and
the village of Aqab to the east of the fence.
The government
approved a plan to address the "daily life" issues of Jerusalem's
Palestinian population who will be affected by the separation fence.
According to the plan, the Jerusalem municipality will make
arrangements to ease passage at the fence and to bus students from one
side to the other, as well as procedures for administering medical and
humanitarian services to those in need.
The government will also
encourage East Jerusalem hospitals to open branches beyond the fence.
Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will oversee the implementation of the
plan.
The ministers approved a supplementary NIS 17 million to the
Public Security Ministry budget as well as NIS 8 million for the Jerusalem
municipality for providing the new services.
Health Minister Danny
Naveh said that the intention is to create convenient passage for the
stranded residents and to allow them to receive health services on both
sides of the fence without interference.
Deputy Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert mentioned the 3,655 school children who will be on the other
side of the fence, "for whom we will have to provide daily transportation
to their schools."
The cabinet ministers were told that the
Jerusalem fence will include 12 passage gates, and that schools, post
offices and National Insurance branches will be built on the other side of
the fence, in order to alleviate the life situation of the residents
caught behind it.
Amir Cheshin, a former Arab affairs adviser in
the Jerusalem municipality, said it would be impossible to implement the
government's plan.
"I don't know if I should laugh or cry," Cheshin
told Israel Radio. "I don't see thousands and thousands going through
these checkpoints to go to school."
Minister Without Portfolio Haim
Ramon said the gates and crossings in the fence must remain open, and be
shut down only in emergency situations. According to Ramon, public
services on this side of the fence must be brought to the same level as on
the other side.
Deputy Construction Minister Avraham Ravitz said
"we want the changes to remain unfelt, so that leaving tens of thousands
of Palestinians outside the fence will not cause them to feel isolation
and inability to function."