BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) — For now, it takes Amjad Awwad one minute to cross the street from his home to the minimarket where he works. But if Israeli plans to construct a wall around nearby Rachel’s Tomb materialize, it could take the 37-year-old an hour to get to work. In such a case he would be forced to go to his store via the Israeli checkpoint a few yards away at the other end of the street. “We will be living in a prison,” said Awwad, a Greek Orthodox. Awwad’s longtime customers, the Bandak family, also live across the street from the store and often run out for last-minute purchases. BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) — For now, it takes Amjad Awwad one minute to cross the street from his home to the minimarket where he works.

But if Israeli plans to construct a wall around nearby Rachel’s Tomb materialize, it could take the 37-year-old an hour to get to work. In such a case he would be forced to go to his store via the Israeli checkpoint a few yards away at the other end of the street.

“We will be living in a prison,” said Awwad, a Greek Orthodox.

Awwad’s longtime customers, the Bandak family, also live across the street from the store and often run out for last-minute purchases.

“Now I will need a special permit to go through the checkpoint so I can go to the minimarket across the street,” said Jihad Bandak, 26, a Catholic.

He said the proposed wall will separate family and friends.

“This street is the entrance to Bethlehem. It is the life of Bethlehem; now they want to close it,” Bandak told Catholic News Service.

The Israeli military informed area residents by letter Feb. 15 of plans to construct a 26- to 33-foot high concrete wall, Bandak said.

The wall will put about two-thirds of the current entrance road to Bethlehem directly under Israeli control while allowing the Palestinians to use only about one-third of the road.

Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem and the Custodian of the Holy Land, Franciscan Father Giovanni Battistelli, released an urgent appeal March 1 to the international Christian community to speak out against the construction of the wall.

“Because of this Israeli decision, 60 Christian families near Rachel’s Tomb at the entrance of Bethlehem are being encircled, isolated and deprived of all services and (will) have only a small entry through an eight-meter high wall that will isolate the city of Bethlehem from Jerusalem and the other territories,” they said.

They called their appeal an “SOS cry” and said “the inhabitants of Bethlehem and particularly the Christians, seeing themselves closed in, threatened by serious hardship to the point where some of them may feel constrained to leave the country, appeal to you.”

Jews revere Rachel’s Tomb as the burial site of one of the four Jewish matriarchs — Rachel, the wife of Jacob. Jewish pilgrims come daily to pray at the site — especially barren women — in special bulletproof buses.

The tomb is located several hundred yards from the entrance of Bethlehem.

The Israeli military maintain a presence around the tomb, which was the site of fierce fighting during the early stages of the intifada, or Palestinian uprising. Although no Israeli pilgrim has ever been attacked at the site, the military says the wall is necessary for security reasons.

The Bethlehem municipality has hired a lawyer and appealed the decision. The Israeli Supreme Court has given the military 21 days to present its case as to why the wall is necessary.

“The construction of this wall will virtually transform the Rachel’s Tomb area into a ghetto requiring permission for more than 500 residents to enter or leave their own houses and lands while no visitors are allowed in, violating the simple human rights and in contradiction with the Oslo Accord … which clearly states ‘the free movement of Palestinians on the main road will continue,'” said Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser.

“This will strangle the economy of Bethlehem and cut interconnection between our town and the rest of the Palestinian cities,” he said in a statement.

The wall would be in addition to the larger wall Israel plans to build along its border with the Palestinian territories to prevent terrorist infiltration.

From Bandak’s roof, one can see clearly how this small section of land where some 60 families lives will be squeezed between these two walls, making them almost an island.

“We will need special permits to go into Bethlehem, and we won’t be able to go to Jerusalem or Amman,” said Elizabeth Awwad, 40, Amjad’s sister.

The once-bustling neighborhood has been greatly reduced since the beginning of the intifada. The few shop owners in the neighborhood said customers avoid their stores out of fear of harassment by Israeli soldiers because of the store’s proximity to Rachel’s Tomb.

In early March, a soldier standing guard at the tomb stopped a Palestinian woman wearing a headdress and a young boy who were walking near the tomb. The soldier kicked at a gift-wrapped package the boy was holding in a plastic bag and demanded in Hebrew to know what it was. The soldier eventually let them pass.

“This is the area where in Christmas and other holidays all the patriarchs come from into Bethlehem,” said Bandak. “Now it will be closed to them. The whole Status Quo will go from the area.”

The Status Quo is a longstanding agreement that regulates jurisdiction of and access to key Christian sites in the Holy Land for Catholic, Orthodox and other Christian communities.