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JERUSALEM, July 10 (Xinhuanet) -- The separation wall will cut
off some 55,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem from the rest of the
city, Israeli ministers decided during a weekly cabinet meeting
Sunday.
According to the local newspaper Ha'aretz, the
government also set September 1 as the new deadline for completing the
construction of the fence.
The government approved a plan to address the "daily life"
issues of Jerusalem's Palestinian population who will be affected by the
barrier.
Under this plan, the Jerusalem municipality will make
arrangements to ease passage at the fence and to bus students from one side to
the other, as well as procedures for administering medical and humanitarian
services to those in need.
The cabinet ministers were told that the Jerusalem fence will
include 12 passage gates, and that schools, post offices and National Insurance
branches will be built on the other side of the fence, in order to alleviate the
life situation of the residents caught behind it. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert will oversee the implementation of the plan.
Deputy Construction Minister Avraham Ravitz said "we want the
changes to remain unfelt, so that leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians
outside the fence will not cause them to feel isolation and inability to
function."
More than 200,000 Palestinians now live in the East
Jerusalem.
Palestinians held an anti-wall rally on Friday near the West
bank city of Nablus, demanding the immediate dismantling of the racist fence and
chanted anti-Israel slogans.
The protest rally coincided with the first anniversary of the
International Court of Justice's verdict declaring nullification of the
fence meandering through the West Bank
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