But Palestinians don't expect the appeal to sway the High
Court, which has thrown out dozens of other cases filed so far
on behalf of thousands of Palestinians isolated by jogs in the
110 miles of the barrier built to date.
The network of fences and walls will be Israel's rampart
against Palestinian suicide bombers, the government says. But
since the barrier often snakes well into the West Bank,
Palestinians call it a ruse to annex territory with Jewish
settlements that Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
The idea of a high-tech barrier as insurance against
militant attack is as popular in Mevasseret Zion, flanking an
open rural border easily reached by Palestinians from villages
visible a mile or two away, as elsewhere in Israel.
But unlike most, Mevasseret Zion's Israelis have prized
their ties with nearby Palestinians for decades and fear they
could come undone by a planned loop in the barrier that would
cut villagers off from land rather than stick to the 1967 West
Bank boundary.
Thirty townsfolk, backed by hundreds of signatories on a
petition, have joined an appeal in Israel's High Court filed by
Beit Surik, the nearest West Bank village, and seven others to
shift the barrier to unused scrub hillside along the frontier.
"These Palestinians never sent terror to us. They are faces
we know. No one can claim they are not people of peace," said
Shai Dror, 60, a landscaper who co-launched the petition drive
in this upscale suburb just off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv
motorway.
But he voiced concern that bitterness over the barrier
would feed militant sentiment and foment violence in an area
that has been quiet during three years of Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
"They have worked among us and sold their produce here for
many years. They are not abstract threats like for most
Israelis. Pushing the people of Beit Surik to the wall would
end up exploding in our faces," Dror said.
On February 29, the High Court ordered work on the barrier
segment suspended for a week while it mulls the appeal.
CRUDE MAPS DEPOSITED IN VILLAGE RAISE ALARM
Nearby Palestinian villagers woke up one February morning
to find maps scattered about showing they were about to be
sealed off from olive groves that stretch down terraced slopes
and across a valley just below the "Green Line" border.
One of the migrant workers who slip into Mevasseret Zion
daily handed the map he had picked up to his employer.
The petition drive gained momentum last week after a World
Court hearing into the barrier's legality and the killings by
Israeli troops of two Palestinians in a crowd who tried to stop
army bulldozers tearing up farmland requisitioned for the
fence.
Dror set up a Web site and the town newspaper has run
notices to explain the petition campaign and then the resort to
the High court after debate in community meetings.
The petition has elicited not only the predictable support
of anarchists, who have joined anti-barrier protests, but
middle-class residents from the moderate right to left
reflecting Israeli society at large, organizers say.
Hagai Snir, a community activist coordinating the Israeli
role in the appeal, said the gist of the challenge was that the
barrier should run along slopes plunging below the end of town
because Israeli soldiers at lookout points could easily spot
and pre-empt any attempts to breach it.
Israel's government counters that the barrier must be built
further into the West Bank to provide a security buffer.
Meanwhile, Palestinians continue to sneak into Mevasseret
Zion for work as laborers, gardeners and domestic workers,
after scanning the approach for police and waiting for the
all-clear by mobile phone from waiting Israeli employers.
"Of course the fence will go up. It will hurt us. But we at
least want to keep our land. Otherwise there can be only pain
and violence. We are grateful to Israelis here who joined our
case. They are good people," said Mohammed, a builder.
