In 2002, the government of Israel decided to erect a physical barrier to separate Israel and the West Bank in an attempt to minimize the entry of Palestinian terrorists into Israel. This has partially solved today's terrorist infiltration problem but has caused grief and pain to innocent Palestinians in every area in which it was constructed, along the 1967 border Line.
In the southern region of Mt. Hebron (West Bank), the movement of Palestinians who are coming into the Israel illegally to find work has been disrupted. These people and their families are paying the price for the system of collective control that Israel has decided to implement with the erection of the Separation Barrier.
Typically, a day's work in the West Bank for a builder usually comes to about $50-60$, while a day's work in Israel brings them $90-$120. Their families have come to rely on this income. Ironically, these Palestinian men, who are determined to keep providing for their families are the ones who are physically building the State of Israel. They endure terrible conditions as illegal workers, sleeping rough in river creeks, under bridges , on building sites and under highways in Beer Sheva city area, trying to avoid getting caught. If the Palestinians are apprehended, they go through a security check and when found innocent of terrorist intentions, they are sent back to their homes.
Every wall has its weak points. For a young man determined enough, it becomes a way of life- waiting for the right moment, for the pre paid accomplice driver waiting on the other side, depending on his faithful cellphone and on his buddies, all of whom are adjusting strategies to accommodate for the Separation Barrier.
The village of Ar Ramadin, which is located in the same area of south Mt Hebron, presents another example of the kind of effect that the separation barrier has had; The 5 kilometer area of the fence just outside the village was notoriously easy to slip through, for Palestinians who are looking for work inside Israel.
The Bedouin tribe Ar Ramadin had to abandon their ancestral lands in areas north of Beer Sheva city in the face of oncoming Israeli troops in the war of 1948. As a result, they were forced to purchase land from Palestinian land owners in Dahariya, an Arab village 15 kilometers to the north. The lands the tribe had left became part of the new Jewish state. After the six day war in 1967, their new village, called Ar Ramadin, was occupied by Israeli forces. in 2004 a fence following the 1967 border in that area was altered in a way that annexed the new Jewish settlement of Eshkolot (established in 1991) and adjacent land purchased by the Ar Ramadin tribe.
For years, the people of Ar Ramadin had had access both to their own fields and olive orchards because the border fence was easily penetrated. There was a fully functioning well that the tribe had constructed to serve their water needs, but since 2004 and as a result of the ease with which Palestinians from other areas crossed the border via Ar Ramadin village area, creating the possibility of terrorist activity, the fence was gradually reinforced, eventually becoming the impenetrable concrete wall it is today (2017 onwards).
The well was destroyed. With the reinforcement and change of the border, the Ar Ramadin people have experienced a great loss of freedom. They no longer have access to the fields which they had purchased, developed and cultivated and to their olive groves. Shepherding has become almost impossible, herds can be confiscated if caught too close to the wall. At the present time, no building is allowed by the Israeli authorities within 50-100 meters of the wall, so families have had to move from their homes in order to accommodate their growth.
2009-Ongoing