ram, West Bank, Sep. 2, SPA -- Israel erected the first sections of a towering concrete wall on the middle of a main street linking Jerusalem to the West Bank on Thursday, adding to growing Palestinian feelings of isolation and gloom. The construction came days after two suicide bombers who sneaked into Israel from the West Bank killed 16 people in twin explosions on buses in the southern town of Beersheba. Witnesses said workers protected by soldiers and armed guards came overnight and began raising the 6-metre high blocks down the divide of the urban street as residents and merchants watched in silence. The wall will cut off Palestinians living on one side of the street in East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognised internationally, from neighbours across the road in the West Bank. "They did it today because of the (suicide) attack, without a doubt," said lawyer Muhammad Dahleh, who is representing ar-Ram residents in Israel's High Court. "Israel thinks now the international community will not be as aggressive in criticising this wall, which is being built in the middle of Palestinian society." --More 1910 Local Time 1610 GMT
