The Seam Area | מחסוםווטש
אורנית, מהצד הזה של הגדר

The Seam Area

AreaThis is a term that has certainly shrunk in the laundering: the reality is bounded by barbed-wire coils or by an eight-metre high concrete wall. What we are talking about is no broad area, but rather one in which the Palestinians are to be closely confined, locked in enclaves with limits marked by the Green Line and the new `separation fence' (q.v.) that has been built to its east. Within these enclaves are Palestinian villages and land now utterly cut off from the continuum of Palestinian life in the West Bank. Thus, for example, the seam area includes considerable stretches of Palestinian agricultural land whose owners live in the West Bank proper and now need special permits – not always available to them – in order for them to be able to work those lands or harvest their olive crops. At the same time, Palestinians who live in the seam area find themselves needing permits to leave and come back to their own homes (q.v. `illegals' in their own homes). There can be no doubt but that the existence of the `seam area' has seriously damaged the quality of everyday Palestinian life.