The Israeli army began Sunday to remove cement walls once used to protect against Palestinian sniper fire in a Jerusalem neighborhood adjacent to the West Bank.

Cranes lifted the two-meter high slabs, each weighing two-and-a-half tons, and placed them onto a semi-trailer bed to be carted away to an army warehouse.

The Middle East is changing. Palestinians and Israelis are on the verge of resuming direct peace talks for the first time in years. Growing prosperity on both sides and increased security cooperation have kept terrorist attacks almost non-existent. The army has decided that this wall was no longer needed.

"The security situation has turned around completely," Maj. Peter Lerner, spokesman for the Israel Army's Central Command, told The Media Line. "This is our main thinking of why we can today remove these elements of the fence. We have good working relations with the Palestinian security forces. We have a good sense of security and we have the ability to deal with terror threats that could formulate on the other side. Today gives us the opportunity, for the wellbeing of all residents living in Gilo, to remove these elements."

For the past decade, cement barriers have become a fixture in the lives of residents of the Gilo neighborhood and have given them a sense of security. When the Palestinian unrest erupted a decade ago, Arab gunmen across the valley in the cities of Beit Jala and Bethlehem would take pot shots at their Jewish neighbors...[More.]