The Palestinian village of al-Walaja is located approximately nine kilometers southwest of the Old City of Jerusalem. The village’s lands and jurisdiction are politically fragmented, being partly under the administration of the Jerusalem Municipality (Israeli-administered) and partly within the Bethlehem Governorate in the rest of the occupied West Bank (Palestinian-Authority (PA)-administered, within Area B and Area C). The village has become an enclave, encircled by the Separation Wall, which cuts it off from most of its agricultural land and neighboring Palestinian communities. It is bordered by the Israeli settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo (see Settlements). Its strategic location is a point of contention in Israeli urban planning, which aims to create a “Greater Jerusalem” settlement belt that effectively isolates Bethlehem from Jerusalem and forecloses the possibility of a Palestinian state (see al-Walaja: The Ancient Palestinian Village Ghettoized by Proliferating Settlements and the Separation Wall and Israel’s Vision for a Greater (Jewish) Jerusalem).
This is a photograph showing village children navigating the collapsed roads and ruined natural landscape as bulldozers destroy ancient terraced landscapes to install Israel’s Separation Wall. Bulldozers worked on lands owned by local families in September 2011, leveling ground for the wall’s path. The residents rushed to the sites, but Israeli soldiers forcefully stopped them.