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The security services recently began
implementing a policy that makes it harder for East Jerusalem residents
to travel to certain West Bank cities.
According to orders issued by the head of the Israel Defense Forces'
Central Command, Major General Yair Naveh, the main crossing between
Jerusalem and Bethlehem is now closed to Palestinians who hold Israeli
identity cards.
An IDF spokesman confirmed that enforcement of the orders issued by the
Central Command in October 2000, which forbade holders of Israeli
identity cards to enter Area A (the Oslo Accords' term for areas under
full Palestinian control) for security reasons, is now stricter. The
spokesman added that requests to enter Area A are handled on a case by
case basis.
However, Defense Minister Amir Peretz's office said that he was not
aware of any such decision.
In practice, the policy is being implemented at only one crossing,
albeit a central one. However, the intention is to expand enforcement to
other crossings.
The new policy is upsetting East Jerusalem's 237,000 residents, the vast
majority of whom are not Israeli citizens, as their lives are
intertwined with the nearby West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem,
whether by family ties, commercial interests or culture. These residents
are being cut off from their environs by the new IDF policy.
Thus Christians from East Jerusalem, for instance, who wish to visit the
holy sites in Bethlehem now have to go to the Qalandiyeh crossing, north
of the city, where the Israel Police have said that they are unable to
implement the policy.
The IDF spokesman insisted that the crossing is the police's
responsibility and it is their duty to enforce the order. In response,
the police said that a Supreme Court decision forbids preventing East
Jerusalem residents from visiting neighborhoods in the north of the
city, which are categorized as either Area B (joint Israeli-Palestinian
control) or Area C (full Israeli control). According to the police, it
is the IDF's job to keep holders of Israeli identity cards from entering
Area A.
Police sources expressed puzzlement at the fact that the IDF is setting
policy but not implementing it.
The IDF said that "in view of the security situation, there has been a
change in the enforcement policy of GOC Central Command Order 378, dated
October 5, 2000, which forbids Israeli residents from entering Area A of
the Palestinian Authority, such as Ramallah and Bethlehem." The order
was issued to prevent Israeli citizens from being kidnapped by
Palestinians. However, the police said that it is not aware of a single
case in which a re sident of East Jerusalem had been kidnapped.
A senior Defense Ministry source suggested that forbidding East
Jerusalem residents to enter Area A is just one part of a broader policy
of making life harder for Palestinian residents of Jerusalem. The source
pointed out that this policy includes preventing students who have been
abroad for long periods from visiting the city.
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