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Israeli road obstacles rise by 40% in a year, strangling the
Palestinians, says UN
On a map
the route looks straightforward enough. From Nazareth, amid the ploughed
brown farmlands of northern Israel, Highway 60 travels south for nearly
100 miles, winding down through the mountains of the West Bank, through
the heart of central Jerusalem and into the narrow streets of Bethlehem.
This is the direct route from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the closest
approximation to the journey described in the Bible when Joseph and Mary
travelled south to register for taxes in the time of Caesar Augustus.
But to travel the route today is to go through the geographical and
political labyrinth of the Middle East conflict, through occupied land,
restricted roads, military checkpoints, heavily guarded Israeli
settlements, strongholds of Palestinian militancy and the West Bank
barrier.
Today, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of
Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, and other church leaders
from Britain will visit Bethlehem.
Nazareth sits above a broad plain dotted with Arab villages and long
plastic greenhouses. A few minutes' drive south the road crosses the
1967 boundary dividing Israel from the occupied West Bank. The Green
Line, as it is known, is invisible on the ground and not shown in
Israeli school textbooks. The road crosses at the Jalama checkpoint, a
large set of yellow metal gates guarded by a two-storey concrete
watchtower. A picture of a reindeer has been spraypainted on a wall of
army concrete blocks nearby.
At this point the West Bank barrier runs along the Green Line, although
for much of its half-completed route it crosses into the West Bank. When
finished it will put 10.17% of the West Bank and East Jerusalem between
the barrier and the Green Line, according to the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Mark Regev, Israel's foreign ministry spokesman, said the system of
checkpoints and closures across the West Bank was based on security
concerns. "It is an unfortunate necessity. Hopefully it won't be
forever. But this is the reality of the situation," he said.
"In 2006 we had less suicide bombings than we had in one week in 2002
and this is largely because of the measures Israel has taken to prevent
suicide bombings and checkpoints are part of that." He said the West
Bank barrier had made a significant impact reducing attacks inside
Israel. "Where the fence is an issue of quality of life for the
Palestinians, for the Israelis on our side of the fence it is an issue
of life or death itself."
Cars with yellow Israeli number plates are not allowed to cross Jalama
into the West Bank. The road heads into Jenin, one of the main cities of
the West Bank, a stronghold of some of the most extreme Palestinian
militant groups, including those responsible for suicide bombings. The
Israeli military sometimes imposes age restrictions at certain
checkpoints, which make it difficult for young men from Jenin to leave
the city.
In the centre of town, Sami Jowabri, 44, runs his own taxi company. His
drivers have become experts in monitoring the system of checkpoints,
road closures and barriers that dot the roads of the West Bank. The
number of Israeli military obstacles has risen by 40% in the past year.
There are now 528 physical obstacles, the UN said in September. It said
closures were a primary cause of the Palestinian humanitarian crisis.
"It's affected our work a lot," said Mr Jowabri. "We have drivers who
spend so long at checkpoints they have to sleep in their cars. They tell
us it's for security, but I don't think it's about security. If people
really want to set off bombs they find a way around the checkpoints."
From Jenin the highway runs down through winding hills and then suddenly
runs up against a large series of plastic barriers blocking the road.
There is nothing to explain the closure, except a passing Israeli army
jeep and the concrete walls of the Shave Shomeron settlement, just north
of Nablus.
All the other Palestinian cars on the road turned off a few minutes
earlier, avoiding the roadblock as well as a checkpoint nearby at Anabta.
Instead, the drivers cross an unofficial dirt road through several
fields and over steep ditches. It comes out on a rerouted Highway 60,
this time with the occasional car with Israeli plates, driven by
residents of the several nearby settlements - settlements considered
illegal under international law.
A little further on is a checkpoint. All the Palestinian cars, with
their green plates, queue to be checked. The settlers, in their Israeli
plated cars, can drive by without stopping.
Soon there is the city of Nablus, closed in by checkpoints where again
the Israeli military sometimes imposes age restrictions and where queues
at the checkpoints are frequently long and hot-tempered. "It's a
humiliation, like we're still living in the 2nd century, not the 21st,"
said Ali Hassan Ali, 57.
Just before the entrance to Jerusalem, all the Palestinian cars turn off
the road. For those West Bank Palestinians who do not have the identity
cards needed to enter Jerusalem, they must travel a long and circuitous
route along an old British army supply road that runs near Jericho and
skirts around the eastern edge of Jerusalem. It takes more than an hour
if there are no hold-ups at checkpoints.
Ahmad Shahab, 51, an Islamic studies schoolteacher, is heading from
Ramallah to Eizariya, halfway to Bethlehem. "Are these restrictions
because they are afraid of attacks? But a person like me over 50, what
threat am I for them?"
In Bethlehem itself, Victor Batarseh, the mayor, looks from his office
into the doorway of the Church of the Nativity. He blames the
checkpoints and closures for the economic crisis that has shaken his
town. Unemployment is 65%, large parts of the town's farmland have been
taken up by the West Bank barrier, and a financial boycott on the
Palestinian Authority has meant no salaries have been paid at the
municipality for four months.
"This year is I think the hardest Christmas we are facing," he said.
"The wall is turning this city into a big prison for its citizens. There
is confiscation of land, closure of the main entrances to the city. All
this has a physical and a psychological effect. We can only hope for
change."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1976573,00.html
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