Tears run as Israeli barrier rises near Jerusalem

11.45am - By GWEN ACKERMAN

ABU Dis, West Bank - Tearful Palestinians watched cranes lower huge concrete slabs into place at the edge of Arab East Jerusalem on Tuesday as the latest sections of a disputed Israeli barrier cut them off from the city.

Work has been stepped up on the barrier in the past three days, separating the suburb of Abu Dis from Arab East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as capital of an independent state and which Israelis see as part of their own indivisible capital.

"It used to take me a minute to get to my mother's house. Now how long is it going to take me to get there?" asked Nadia Ghazali, dabbing her cheeks with a tissue, as she watched the machinery in front of her apartment block.

The barrier of concrete and razor wire is eventually designed to separate Jerusalem, holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, from the Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

Thousands of Palestinians complain that they will now be cut off from jobs, family and places of worship on the other side.

At his besieged headquarters of Ramallah, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called the barrier the biggest catastrophe to befall the Palestinians since the creation of the Jewish State, but he came up with no new ideas to confront it.

Israelis have brushed off criticism even from their main ally the United States over the looping route of a barrier through the West Bank that they say has already helped to keep more than two dozen suicide bombers from Israeli cities.

Palestinians call the barrier an attempt to annex land occupied since the 1967 Middle East war and fear it will become the de facto border if Israel carries out unilateral partition moves it has threatened if peace talks fail.

"This is the biggest Nakba (Catastrophe) of all Nakbas," Arafat told reporters, using a word which evokes the exodus of Palestinians who fled their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli at Israel's creation.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in a move not recognised internationally, as the capital of an independent state. But Israeli leaders have rejected this.

One past suggestion for possible compromise has been that East Jerusalem could be a nominal capital, but that Abu Dis -- officially in the West Bank -- play the real function. That looked less likely on Tuesday as the wall cut it off.

"The intention of the construction is to prevent free movement from one side to the other and people will have to go through checks," a Defence Ministry spokesman said.

The barrier is expected to form a makeshift border if Israel carries out unilateral moves that it has threatened if there is no movement on a US-backed "road map" for ending more than three years of conflict.

The road map has been bogged down by the failure of both sides to take promised steps and end near daily violence.

Stone-throwers confronted Israeli troops on Tuesday in the West Bank of Tulkarm, where dozens of Palestinians have been rounded up and several detained. Medics said four Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

Contacts to try to set up negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qurie, who has a home in Abu Dis, have been frozen since last month. Palestinians said it was because of Israeli attacks.

Lower-level officials and delegates from both sides met in Turkey several days ago to discuss ways to push ahead with the road map, but participants said there had been no progress.

- REUTERS