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04/05/2006:

"Jews and Arabs unite to protest Israel's unilateral frontier"

BILIN, West Bank (AFP) - "I came to Bilin because when Jews are with Palestinians there is less violence," says Jonathan Sivin as he joins a weekly demonstration against Israel's security fence in this West Bank village.

But this day Sivin's words have an ominous echo, coming days after acting premier Ehud Olmert's Kadima party won the Israeli general election on a platform of turning the "barrier" into the Jewish state's eastern border.

Palestinian leaders, who call the barrier "an apartheid fence", have said such a move will only lead to further conflict, and this ragtag band of 300 left-wing Israelis, Palestinian villagers and foreign peace activists agree.

"Olmert means there will be no peace in this land," says demonstrator Yussef Karaja. "I don't know what we can do but we refuse his way. They are killing us without shooting, by lack of food, lack of work, lack of services."

Once completed, the 670-kilometre (415-mile) mix of concrete, steel and razor wire will effectively confiscate eight to 10 percent of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Some 49,400 Palestinians living in 48 villages will find themselves on the Israeli side of the barrier.
news.yahoo.com