Israel barrier splits opinion

By James Reynolds BBC correspondent, Jerusalem

Osama Sohi looks out from what is left of his family's home.

He stands on rubble on a hillside in a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

As dawn came one day last month, so did Israeli forces. They tore down the family home on the hill.

"You see Jerusalem in front of us, the Old City. You see the Dome of the Rock. The fence will be 100 metres up the hill," Mr Sohi says.

They [the Palestinians] want their own state, fine. But we just need to separate from them Mark Luriyeh Security Fence for Israel Movement

It will leave part of Osama Sohi's family on one side, and part on the other side.

"Those are my uncles also and up the hill we have my other uncles, so they will destroy my family. It will be between them."

Zoo

So how will they visit each other?

Guide to the route and structure of the West Bank barrier

At-a-glance

"I don't know. We have to go around like 30 kilometres. I think it's the most racist thing in the world. I feel like we are going to be in a zoo, animal zoo. And like we are the good people, and we feel that we are the bad people after the fence," Mr Sohi says.

For Israel, there is a simple reason for a fence round Jerusalem - to stop the bombers from getting in.

In effect it goes back to the principle obeyed by all rulers of this city from biblical times till the 19th Century - surround Jerusalem with a wall.

"I think 80% of the people in this country believe that we need to build a fence between us and the Palestinians. They want their own country, fine," says Mark Luriyeh from the Security Fence for Israel Movement.

For Israelis inside the fence, it stands for protection. For Palestinians looking at the same barrier from the other side, it is a symbol of theft and imprisonment.

"They want their own state, fine. But we just need to separate from them. Right now it's easier for someone from Hamas to come from Bethlehem, which is only 10 miles away from here, than to go from one side of a bridge in London to the other. They just basically walk across."

So Israel is trying to stop them.

Its fence is going up along the hills outside Bethlehem.

And it has already built a barrier on the edge of Palestinian villages outside Jerusalem.

Different raison d'etre

Here on the edge of Ezaria there is a concrete wall, a series of concrete bollards which have been placed on the side of the road, stopping anyone trying to get over into Jerusalem. There is barbed wire on the top and there are groups of soldiers on either side of the wall. And it looks like they have stopped a few people.

If I just look through the cracks in the wall on the other side I can see a soldier with a machinegun and a jeep and they have stopped a lot of people from trying to cross over from one side of the wall to the other.

By the side of the wall groups of young men wait around, hoping the soldiers will leave so that they can jump over the wall.

Those are my uncles also and up the hill we have my other uncles, so they will destroy my family. It will be between them Osama Sohi Palestinian near Jerusalem

Fuad is a 20-year-old labourer.

We can't get to Jerusalem, he says. "The Israelis want us to stay at home and die. It's hard to talk about this wall. If the Israelis catch me, they may beat me."

Depending on who you are and on where you are, the barrier stands for something different.

For Israelis inside the fence, it stands for protection. For Palestinians looking at the same barrier from the other side, it is a symbol of theft and imprisonment.