Some of its 2,000 resident say they are giving up and leaving, because the barrier will cut them off from hospitals, schools and jobs.
Israel says it needs the series of walls, fences and razor wire around the West Bank to keep out suicide bombers. Palestinians say the barrier is an Israeli ploy to confiscate land and eliminate the possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state.
The barrier is about one-quarter completed.
Many villages and towns share the fate of Sheik Saad, cut off from farmlands and services. But the village — cut off from Jerusalem by the barrier and from the rest of the West Bank by the valley — highlights the plight.
"This is quite an extreme example of the negative human rights impact of the barrier," said Yehezkel Lein, a researcher with the Israeli human rights group B'tselem. "They will have to live in a cage or leave."
In September 2002, the Israeli army closed off the only road leading to the village with piles of dirt and concrete.
Residents can still climb over the earthen mound and sneak into Jerusalem for work, while students walk over to the next village to attend high school.
But when the permanent barrier is completed, even that will no longer be possible. The only way out will be a rough gravel road into the valley, then uphill to the next village, impossible for most vehicles to navigate. It's a strenuous 45-minute trek.
Israeli Defense Ministry spokeswoman Rachel Niedak-Ashkenazi said a better road would be built into the village and the permanent barrier would not be completed until it is finished.
Mohammed Aweisat, father of 40-day-old twins, said the current makeshift barrier already means hardship.
"We're cut off from everything and everyone. We're prisoners in our own homes," said Aweisat, 30, as he climbed over the pile of concrete blocks and dirt and walked toward a taxi.
Aweisat had sent a cab driver to Jerusalem to buy baby food because the Israeli military does not permit him to leave the village.
"I can't even buy baby formula for my twins. How does anyone expect us to live like this?" he asked.
