INTERNATIONAL PULSE Period: March 2007 6666666 End-Time Church / Pluralism Global Politics Israel

ISRAEL AN INTERCESSORY PRAYER FOR THE NATION OF ISRAEL Dearest Holy Father, LORD of the heaven, and the earth, and the sea and everything in them, We love You, thank You! " O LORD, G-d of Israel, there is no G-d like You in heaven above or on earth below -- You who keep Your covenant of love with Your servants who continue wholeheartedly in Your way. " [I Ki 8:23] The LORD be exalted! Our G-d JESUS CHRIST, above the heavens, we stand in awe of Your awesome deeds, for Your righteous acts have been revealed. Seek the LORD, all the humble of the land, those who do what our G-d commands.The day for building our walls will come, and the day for restoring our good land; and we will walk in the Name of the LORD our G-d forever. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. [Ps 34:18] May the Nation awaken and return to Christ our LORD G-d. " If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." [Lk 9:26] The LORD says: " These people come near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.Their worship of Me is made up only of rules taught by men." [Isa 29:13] May G-d purify the hearts and the lips of the peoples, all of them may call on the Name of our G-d and serve our G-d. See how satan rises up against Israel and war and violence have grown into the land. May G-d deliver us from all our troubles. G-d told us: Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azal. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my G-d will come, and all the holy ones with Him. [Zec 14:3-5,9] Surely in the LORD our G-d is the Salvation of Israel.[Jer 3:23] You are righteous in everything You do. Our G-d is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Save us, for the glory of Your Name; deliver us and forgive our sins for Your Name's sake. Let all peoples know that You, whose Name is the LORD JESUS CHRIST -- that You alone are G-d, the Most High over all the earth! Teach us Your way continually, give us an undivided heart, our LORD G-d, may all Your people fear Your Name and walk in Your truth; may the favor of the LORD our G-d rest upon us and may Your marvelous deeds be shown to Your people and Your splendor to Israel forever. Praise be to the LORD, the G-d of Israel, who gathers us from the nations, we trust in You and give all thanksgiving and glory to You. We pray that all G-d's people will observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. It is a Sabbath to the LORD our G-d, and remember that we were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD our G-d brought us out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, let us obey G-d's commandments to observe the Sabbath day. May all who love the LORD hate evil; all who are righteous, rejoice in our G-d, worship our G-d and praise G-d's Holy Name. Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen. [Rev 1:7] In the Name of the LORD G-d, our Savior JESUS CHRIST, Amen. TheLORDguides_Ministry Worldwide Outreach Events - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheLORDguides_Ministry Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. [Ac 4.12] They are to be mine. I am the LORD. [Nu 3:13] For this G-d is our G-d for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end. [Ps 48:14] P.S. Praise the LORD! All words were manifested and revealed by our LORD G-d Himself. All messages we sent came from our G-d Himself for all His people in the last days. Please do your best to forward as the LORD guides you. ----- FRONT LINE, VATICAN, MY CATHOLIC FRIENDS By Barry Chamish - I point out that Israel's leaders are deliberately wiping out the nation, and the Jews boycott me. I prove the Vatican's fingers are in Israel's upcoming ruin and two top-notch Catholic writers rush to my side. I knew Francisco Gil-White was a terrific writer years ago and so we've remained corresponding writer buddies. Since being fired from his professor's post for defending Jews, he has entered the heights of living legend status in a few circles. Before putting out his latest piece, he awaited my approval: "Finally getting better. Thanks! My article on Perfidy is finished. I will put it up today on a blind link so that you can see it and give me last minute comments. I want to publish it tonight. Francisco Gil-White" Naturally, I replied that he wrote a triumph. It's time for a parade. Look how he concludes his essay: http://www.hirhome.com/israel/leaders4. From Francisco Gil-White: /"This is the most important lesson/: just as the Nazis needed Rudolf Kastner to distract and reassure the Hungarian Jews, so do the forces that would now destroy the Israeli Jews need Ehud Olmert or any of the main current pretenders to the Israeli prime ministership to distract and dupe the Israelis -- and to repress any protest, too -- while the next slaughter, due very soon, is being prepared. "This is a very difficult lesson for Jews to learn because they don’t know the above history, educated as they have been by the leaders of Labor Zionism, who to this day control most of the major Jewish organizations in the Diaspora http://www.hirhome.com/israel/leaders2.htm, as well as the Israeli government, the Israeli education system, and the Israeli media <http://www.hirhome.com/israel/hezbollah7_2.htm>. And it is difficult to learn because they would rather cling to their illusions than to their very lives. As George Santayana correctly said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The Jews are about to repeat their own tragic past. "Is this inevitable? Well no. But without a revolution, it is a certain outcome. If the Israeli Jews simply trust that their so-called leaders will defend them, or that their Diaspora brethren will come in a white horse to rescue them, their fate will be identical to that of the Hungarian Jews in WWII. "The Hungarian Jews trusted. And they died." Continued: http://www.cephas-library.com/israel_frontline_vatican_and_my_best_friends.html http://www.thebarrychamishwebsite.com/ ----- A-BOMB-INABLE DRILL FOR ALL ISRAELIS Can’t say that we are really looking forward to Israel’s nationwide nuclear and chemical attack preparedness drill in March. The Magen David Adom rescue service announced that a dry run is needed after Hezbollah’s 4000 rockets sowed utter chaos across Northern Israel last summer. People renovated bomb shelters and tended to ignore the signs of post traumatic stress disorder in the family. There was not much they could do as civilians to stop the hail of rockets from Lebanon, since even IDF tank fire and air strikes didn't halt the militants. And Iran's recent nuclear strides are the clincher: army rescue forces, police, medical and firefighting services all will go through their paces as nuke sirens wail all over the country. Everyone undoubtedly will make the effort to "be strong", the unofficial Sabra mantra. I wonder if the day will resemble those old civil defense drills in the states, and generate the dread atomic age angst. Useful retro-advice from the cold war generation in case of nuclear attack: 1. Duck under nearest shelter 2. Cover your eyes from the flash 3. bend over and put your head between your legs 4. then kiss your ass goodbye. Young Israelis increasingly are flirting with the possibility of nuclear annhilation and first strikes, if the nation's latest entry in the Eurovision song contest is any measure. Kobi Oz, lead singer with the group, Teapacks, uses Hebrew, English and French on their edgy single, "Push the Button." some sample lyrics below from the same Sderot guys who brought the world the irreverant"Salaam Salami": The world is full of terror, if someone makes an error, he's gonna blow us up to kingdom come. There are some crazy rulers, they hide and try to fool us, with demonic, technologic willingness to harm. They're gonna push the button ...And I don't wanna die, I wanna see the flowers bloom, don't wanna go kaput-kaboom. Posted by Izzy Bee at Wednesday, February 28, 2007 Labels: "Push the Button", chemical warfare, civil defense, duck and cover, Eurovision, IDF, Iran, Israel, Magen David Adom, national drill, nuclear preparedness, security, Teapacks http://israelitybites.blogspot.com/2007/02/bombinable-drill-for-all-israelis.html ----- HAMAS FACES SPLIT OVER MECCA ACCORDS By KHALED ABU TOAMEHM- March 13, 2007 - Jerusalem Post - The national unity agreement that was reached last month in Mecca has triggered a behind-the-scenes power struggle in Hamas, sources close to the Islamic movement in the Gaza Strip revealed Tuesday. Meanwhile, fierce fighting erupted Tuesday evening between Hamas members and gunmen belonging to a large clan in Gaza City, Palestinian security officials reported. The clashes began after a car carrying several Hamas members was fire upon in the Zeitoun neighborhood, they said, adding that Ala Hadad, a senior Hamas operative, was killed and four others injured. "Hamas is facing a serious split," the sources said. "Opposition in Hamas to the Mecca agreement is growing as some of the movement's senior officials are talking about a possible revolt." The "rejectionist" camp in Hamas, led by Interior Minister Said Siam and Foreign Affairs Minister Mahmoud a-Zahar, is opposed to the Mecca agreement under the pretext that Hamas made too many concessions to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. Both Siam and Zahar have privately criticized Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Syria-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal for signing the agreement, a top Hamas official in Gaza City told The Jerusalem Post. He said the two, along with a number of senior Hamas figures in the Gaza Strip, have refused to participate in coalition talks with Fatah representatives over the past few weeks. The two are expected to lose their jobs in the new Hamas-led coalition. "Siam and Zahar are unhappy with the agreement not only because they won't serve in the unity government, but because they believe that Hamas has made far-reaching political concessions," the official said. "They are convinced that Hamas is gradually abandoning its ideology as Fatah did when it signed the Oslo Accords with Israel more than a decade ago." Although Siam and Zahar have thus far refrained from public criticism of the Mecca agreement, the two are said to be quietly campaigning against the accord. Siam, for instance, has made it clear that he and his supporters will resist any attempt to dismantle Hamas's Executive Force that he established in the Gaza Strip last year. Zahar, on the other hand, is said to have warned that Hamas was headed toward a serious crisis because of its agreement to sit with Fatah in the same coalition. Siam and another prominent Hamas figure, Sami Abu Zuhri, were recently summoned to Damascus for emergency talks with Mashaal, who reportedly reprimanded them for campaigning against the Mecca agreement. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173700695225&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull ----- TOOLS OF THE ENEMY: DEMOCRACY AND MEDIA On Alex Traiman Broadcast scroll all the way down on the page and listen to broadcasts: Israel has just appointed an Arab, Ghaleb Majadele, to be a minister in the cabinet of PM Ehud Olmert; Deputy Knesset Speaker Majallie Whbee will be the acting president of the Jewish State of Israel anytime current Acting President Dalia Itzik goes abroad. Plus: Yarden Frankl comments on the mainstream media's coverage of the internal violence in Gaza, and the larger Israeli-Arab conflict. http://www.mymarketing.co.il/Show/0X0456F427D95F8FBF285F60386CFDBF5C27D035218139A1CD 2B18D517183476B3.htm#a120750 ----- IT ALL BEGINS WITH A FORD by Barry Chamish - November 2, 2006 - Once again I'm forced to "self-opinionation." I asked several writers to trace the Nov. 10 Jerusalem Gay Parade to its highest level. Let's find out who is behind the society-wrecking plot. But everyone was much too busy to seek the facts. Why seek facts when the issue is so much better? "The Faggots Are Going To Corrupt Jerusalem." A point of view that really gets to your prejudices. A brand new hatred to make you forget all your other hatreds. And everyone is rushing into the vacuum to help destroy their people. The religious of Israel are thoroughly persecuted by their government. They are blatant victims of raw secular hatred. Their lifestyle is brutally insulted and disrupted, and then their children are endlessly arrested in their defense. They feel the raw breath of Shabtai Tzvi and Yaacov Frank down their backs. Somebody knows this new faggot problem will make the religious explode in defense of Jerusalem. The KNOWN Israeli bad guy is the Jerusalem Open House. That's as far as the experts have followed the trail. The ugly truth is the JOH in mostly funded by the cornerstone of the Council On Foreign Relations, the (Henry) Ford Foundation. This fund despises Israel and is the chief supplier of money to Israel's most vicious enemies. Recall the 1980s and Jerusalem Vice-Mayor Miron Benvenesti's endless publicity against Yesha. All funded by Ford. Without foundation funds, he faded into Jerusalem's weathered stones. Shall we recall Ford some more? http://www.ngo-monitor.org/editions/v2n09/v2n09-3.htm Ford Foundation Update - Ford Money Still Being Used for Anti-Israel Activities - The funding policy of the Ford Foundation has been analyzed previously by NGO Monitor, drawing particular attention to the NGOs funded by Ford that engage in blatantly political anti-Israel activities. On 15 March 2004, NGO Monitor published an update <http://www.ngo-monitor.org/editions/v2n07/v2n07-3.htm> to ongoing investigations of Ford’s activities. Following publicity generated by NGO Monitor and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Ford Foundation President Susan V. Berresford <http://ngo-monitor.org/editions/v2n04/v2n04-2.htm>initiated a review and declared that it would act to ensure that funds no longer went to "groups that promote or condone bigotry or violence, or that challenged the very existence of legitimate, sovereign states like Israel." Continued: http://www.cephas-library.com/israel_it_all_begins_with_ford.html ----- COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS AFP photographer latest journalist abducted in Gaza - New York, January 2, 2007-The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Monday's abduction of an Agence France-Presse photographer in the Gaza Strip. Jaime Razuri, a veteran international journalist, was seized by a group of unmasked, armed men as he was entering the news agency's bureau in Gaza City, AFP reported. Razuri was returning from an assignment with an interpreter and driver when he was seized. No claim of responsibility was made and the motive for the kidnapping remained unknown, the news agency said. Razuri, a Peruvian national, was the 14th journalist abducted by gunmen in the Gaza Strip since 2004, according to CPJ research. ----- EGYPT:UNCHECKED RAMPANT CORRUPTION Jordan anti-Shiite but pro Hezbollah.- AL Ahram Weekly 25-31 January 2007: Crippling corruption"By Salama A Salama QUOTE FROM TEXT:"the government is oblivious to the scale and methods of corruption" EXCERPTS: The... defective blood containers case recently .... Who did what, how, why, and when? We had no idea. Were the regulators at fault or the regulations? Was it the Health Ministry's fault or the hospital's? No one seemed to know. ... This case is further proof that the government is oblivious to the scale and methods of corruption. Corruption is becoming a happy place where people come and go and make deals and prosper. Only when disaster strikes do we all get worried. We lack standards for good governance. And we have failed to introduce institutional reform. This is why corruption is spreading at such a rate. For example, everyone seems to have forgotten about Article 95 of the constitution. This article states in no uncertain terms that People's Assembly members aren't allowed to buy or sell from the government or rent it anything during their tenure in office. In the defective blood containers case, the breach was clear. A People's Assembly member who monopolises a certain type of merchandise was selling his products to the Health Ministry and its hospitals... .Let's admit it. Many People's Assembly members are selling and buying things from the government in broad daylight and no one is saying anything. This is a case of political corruption, the worst type of corruption, worse even than administrative corruption of which we have plenty. . . .The worst culprits of corruption are usually parliamentary bodies and political parties, followed by the police, health, and education. This doesn't mean that we need to abolish political parties and the parliament. But we need to clean up their act. When parties rely on businessmen to finance their activities, corruption is likely. When regulators are unable to see through the alliance of wealth and power, things will get out of hand. ... . For starters, let's form an independent higher political committee to combat corruption. ----- SADDAM HUSSEIN'S EXECUTION LED TO UPSURGE THE DAILY STAR (Lebanon) 28 Jan.'07:"Jordan begins reacting, ominously, to the Sunni-Shiite rift" by Mohammed al-Masri* QUOTE FROM TEXT:"the (Saddam Hussein) execution led to an upsurge in feelings against Iraqi Shiites in particular, Shiites at large,and Iran as a Shiite and Persian state determined to undermine both Sunni and Arab beliefs and aspirations" EXCERPTS: The timing of the execution of Saddam Hussein on the first morning of Eid al-Adha...triggered a wave of anger and provoked anti-Shiite and anti-Iranian sentiment in Jordan. Jordanians interpreted the event as an act of Iranian-Shiite revenge against Sunnis in Iraq and throughout the Arab world. Jordanians expressed their outrage and protest in different ways, ...(some)praising Saddam as a martyr. Some dedicated their Adha rituals to him and opened houses of mourning. Demonstrations organized in some cities generated calls for revenge. However, despite the anger, there were no reported reprisals against the 200,000 or so Iraqi Shiite refugees in Jordan ... . ...Not surprisingly, the execution led to an upsurge in feelings against Iraqi Shiites in particular, Shiites at large, and Iran as a Shiite and Persian state determined to undermine both Sunni and Arab beliefs and aspirations. Twenty-two Jordanian parliamentarians called for a severing of diplomatic relations with Iran. The Shiite question does not assume the same level of importance in Jordan .... The overwhelming majority of Jordanian Muslims are Sunni; Shiites number fewer than 4,000 according to the most generous estimate. The Jordanian public's lack of awareness of this minority that has been part of Jordanian society for around 100 years signifies its assimilation. It has never been a focus of public debate. The Shiite question becomes relevant to the Jordanian public and Jordanian elites only as a consequence of the American occupation of Iraq. It is political developments in Iraq and the region and the impact of Iraqi refugees in Jordan that have heavily influenced the formation of attitudes toward Shiites in recent times. . . . The new refugees from the 2003 Iraq war were not a homogenous community, but rather a transparent reflection of the complex ethnic, religious and sectarian composition of contemporary Iraqi society. The collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime and subsequent political developments encouraged Iraqis to be open about their sectarian background. Books about Shiism, its history and its martyrs found a place in downtown Amman bookstalls. Jordanians became familiar with Shiite symbols, with the result that differences between Shiite and Sunni Islam were both underlined and exacerbated. Religious lessons given at mosques and Friday sermons emphasized differences between the Sunni and Shiite schools of thought, thereby alerting the Jordanian public to the "correctness" of Sunni interpretations of Islam. Jordanians observed the new political developments within Iraq that signaled the rise of Shiite power at the expense of the Sunnis. The formation of the new Iraqi government, the elections and the drafting of a constitution all generated heated debate and uneasy feelings toward Iraqi Shiites. These anxieties deepened as a result of the intensified mutual attacks between the two communities in Iraq. Iraqi Shiites were thought by Jordanians to have established political hegemony through their collaboration with US occupying forces, and to have marginalized the political role of the Sunnis. Southern and central Iraq came to be viewed as Iranian outposts, and the perception evolved that many Shiite militias and politicians constituted an anti-Sunni camp serving an anti-Arab agenda - be it Iranian, American or both. King Abdullah's well-known warning of the emergence of a Shiite crescent two years ago deepened Jordanian society's concerns about a possible Iranian threat, creating a corresponding unease over Shiite politics in Iraq. The Jordanian establishment warned frequently of the conversion of some Jordanians to Shiism. While the number of such converts is extremely limited and does not exceed hundreds by even the most generous estimate, the Jordanian state has followed a zero-tolerance policy toward the public practice of Shiism. Since the main concern of the Iraqi Shiites in Jordan right now is to keep their residency rights valid and intact, they practice their religious rituals in private. In fact, the threat to the Jordanian state is not conversion to Shiism as such, but what may be termed political Shiism: support for Shiite political organizations and acceptance of their political paradigms. For example, the sweeping support for Hizbullah during the war in Lebanon last summer was a clear manifestation of political Shiism. As much as events in Iraq and interaction with Iraqi communities within Jordan lead to Jordanian antipathy toward Iraqi Shiites and Iran, the Israeli factor and potential conflict between Israel and Hizbullah still encourage support for Hizbullah-style Shiite organizations. Therefore it might be misleading to assume that new anti-Iranian feelings in Jordan are sustainable ... .Mohammed al-Masri is a researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies, University of Jordan. This commentary first appeared at bitterlemons-international.org, an online newsletter. Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA Independent Media Review and Analysis Website: http://www.imra.org.il ----- ISRAEL WAR PLANES CONTINUE THROWING POISONED BALLOONS The Syrian News Agency Story: - Monday, January 29, 2007 - Beirut, (SANA - Syrian news agency ) -Israel continued throwing balloons loaded with poisoned gases over the Lebanese villages and towns, Lebanese National News Agency reported Monday. "Israeli enemy warplanes threw a white balloon over the southern town of Jouea," the news agency said, adding that the international troops in the south sent experts to inspect the balloons. Meanwhile, Member of the Lebanese Amal Movement Leadership Atef Aoun underlined that Israel seeks to instigate sedition among the Lebanese in order to reach what it failed to achieve through its latest aggression on the country last July. "Any one who wants to instigate sedition is undoubtedly Israeli," Aoun said, wondering "Is the wanted after our victory over the Israeli war machine to siege the resistance inside." http://www.sana.org/eng/22/2007/01/29/99648.htm ----- THE MYTH ALREADY BUSTED A DAY EARLIER Balloons released in Israeli promotion sow panic in south Lebanon By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 28/01/2007 - An Israeli promotional campaign involving balloons caused panic among Lebanese civilians Saturday when the wind carried them over the border into southern Lebanon. The Lebanese media reported that some civilians were hospitalized after inhaling the gas in the balloons. However, the photographs published on the Web site of Hezbollah's TV station Al-Manar show green balloons from a promotional campaign for Ha'ir, a Schocken group newspaper. Lebanese sources said the balloons reached the southern Lebanese cities of Nabatiyeh and Tyre, and the Lebanese army warned civilians not to touch them. Some were brought to Italian UN troops for examination. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/818324.html ----- LEBANON'S OFFICIAL NEWS AGENCY CLAIMED THAT THEY WERE "POISONED BALLOONS" DISPERSED BY IDF AIRCRAFT Judeh says no possibility that perpetrator of Eilat bombing crossed to Jordan - Amman, Jan. 29 (Petra - Jordan news agency)-- Government Spokesman Nasser Judeh ruled out that perpetrator of Eilat bombing had arrived in Eilat across the Jordanian territories. "It is impossible for the bomber to have crossed to Jordan, or stayed in the country at any time or to have entered into Eilat from the Jordanian borders,' Judeh said in a statement to Petra. The information, released by those involved in the incident regarding this issue was untrue, he added affirming that the Jordanian borders are strictly protected and under control. http://www.petra.gov.jo/nepras/2007/Jan/29/217000.htm ----- PETRA: KING PHONES ISRAELI PM Amman, January 29,2007 (Petra - Jordan news agency)-His Majesty King Abdullah II phoned Israeli Prime Minister Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during which the King stressed the need for accelerating peace process to avert and any attempt to undermine efforts to restore negotiation between the Palestinians and Israelis. During the phone conversation, King Abdullah denounced explosion operation targeted Eilat on Monday. King hoped that the operation should not affect the reviving of peace process. http://www.petra.gov.jo/nepras/2007/Jan/29/228000.htm ----- PETRA / WARDAT - PRESIDENT ABBAS: FORMING UNITY GOVERNMENT TOP PRIORITY ADDIS ABABA January 29, 2007 (WAFA - PLO news agency) - President Mahmoud Abbas affirmed that "our top priority is forming a national unity government and abiding by the commitments of the PLO and the PNA as well as the international and Arab resolutions and legitimacies." Addressing the Eighth Conference of the African Union in Addis Ababa, President Abbas stressed in case the unity government is not achieved, early elections will be the only option before the leadership. Presidednet Abbas called for the quick implementation of the Road Map, asserting that decades of conflict proved to be infertile. "The real alternative to conflicts is Israel's recognition of the Palestinian rights," President Abbas said, adding "the recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state within the borders of 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital." He pointed out that the Palestinian people are the last people on the earth suffering from occupation, saying Palestine is threatened by the Israeli settlement expansion. President Abbas stressed that continuation of the Israeli occupation of Palestine endangers the stability and security of the region. http://wafa.ps/english/body.asp?id=9120 ----- ISRAELI WALL CREATES "ISLAND" VILLAGES IN WEST BANK Reuters News - February 15, 2007 - BIR NABALA, West Bank • Tawfiq al-Nabali says he lives on an island surrounded not by water, but by a concrete wall. His village of Bir Nabala, in the rolling hills just north of Jerusalem, is encircled by an eight-metre high concrete barrier, cutting it off from the holy city. The only paved road to the outside world leads through an underpass and past an Israeli military checkpoint towards the West Bank city of Ramallah. Bir Nabala, once bustling with traders and workshops and home to many Palestinians working in Jerusalem, looks deserted. Campaigners say it is one of several communities whose survival is threatened by the barrier snaking round its perimetre. “When you crossed the road it used to take 10 minutes, there was so much traffic,” Nabali said, pointing to the empty main street outside his tile shop. Most stores are closed, and blue metal shutters line both sides of the street. “Now it’s like there’s a curfew.” The wall surrounding 15,000 Palestinians in Bir Nabala and four nearby villages is part of a “separation barrier” which Israel says stops Palestinian suicide bombers from crossing from the occupied West Bank into its cities. Palestinians say Israel is just seizing land. Israel says the barrier is temporary and could be removed under a future peace deal. Its route takes it well inside the West Bank at some points, dividing communities and isolating up to 250,000 Palestinians in small enclaves on territory they want for a future state. “They keep talking about a state. But we’re just islands, islands, islands,” Nabali said. “Where is the state?” Hundreds of kilometres of wall have been built and Nabali says, around his village, it is virtually complete. A second road is planned to connect Bir Nabala with a Palestinian district to the west but Nabali, a businessman who also heads the municipality, says those links are no compensation for villagers whose ties are with Jerusalem. “In the whole West Bank, no one has been left unaffected, but we were hit the most. We didn’t know Ramallah, we are (part of) Jerusalem,” Nabali said. Thousands of people, mainly those with Jerusalem residence permits, have moved out, he said. A report published in January said the barrier was separating people from schools, religious institutions and health services, stifling Palestinian life. -----  NEWSLETTERS  NEWS INDEX  MAIN INDEX