Israeli restrictions create isolated enclaves in West Bank

[Englander]

By Amira Hass, Haaretz Correspondent

The regime of restriction on movement imposed by Israel on the Palestinians has crumbled the West Bank into dozens of closed or partially closed enclaves isolated from each other despite their geographical proximity. Permanent and mobile checkpoints, along with physical barriers of various kinds, fenced-off main roads, limitations on Palestinian traffic on east-west and north-south arteries, have cut off direct transportational links between areas of the West Bank.

Thus, a new geographic, social and economic reality has emerged in the West Bank.

Hundreds of exits from Palestinian communities to main and regional roads are blocked. Traffic among the enclaves is directed to secondary roads and a small number of main roads passing through Israel Defense Force-controlled bottle-necks. Entry to the Jordan Valley, Palestinian East Jerusalem and to enclaves between the separation fence and the Green Line is barred to all Palestinians except those registered as residents of those areas. To enter such areas, special authorization to "non-residents" must be obtained, which is rarely given.

Palestinians are not allowed to drive their cars between the northern and southern West Bank (through the Abu Dis checkpoint east of Jerusalem). Private vehicular traffic to and from Nablus is prohibited. Passage by car through the Qalandiyah checkpoint north of Jerusalem is limited to bearers of Jerusalem residency cards, in cars with Israeli license plates. At the Zaatara checkpoint south of Nablus entry is frequently denied to all south-bound residents of the northern West Bank as part of the IDF "differentiation" policy.

Thus, according to a recently released report by the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a horizontal trisection of the West Bank has been affected by checkpoint at bottle-necks in Zaatara (south of Nablus), Qalandiyah (south of Ramallah) and Abu Dis (east of Jerusalem). On the other hand, the blocking of access to the east and west of the West Bank has created a vertical narrowing of the Palestinian territory.

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Four types of enclave in the West Bank
By Amira Hass

The restrictions on movement that Israel imposes on Palestinians in the West Bank have effectively created four different types of enclaves.

1. Closed-off populated enclaves: Entry is permitted only to residents. Such enclaves are closed off both physically and by means of military orders. Examples include the Jordan Valley and various Palestinian villages located between the Green Line and the separation fence, such as Barta'a, Ras al-Tira and Jbara.

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2. Agricultural enclaves trapped between the Green Line and the separation fence, or between settlements and nearby fenced-off security roads: These enclaves can be entered only by Palestinians who obtain a special permit from the Civil Administration, and even then, only during certain hours. But access to land located near settlements is often effectively impossible without prior coordination. Thus, residents of Marda, for instance, have trouble accessing 250 dunams of agricultural land on the opposite side of Route 505, a fenced road; residents of the southern Hebron Hills region have similar trouble accessing 80,000 dunams on the wrong side of Route 317, which is also fenced.

3. Partly blocked populated enclaves: These are surrounded by manned checkpoints that restrict the amount of vehicular traffic in and out, and sometimes also the amount of pedestrian traffic. Nablus, for instance, has been surrounded by checkpoints ever since the start of the intifada. As another example, in January, the Israel Defense Forces barred anyone aged 16 to 30 from leaving Beit Furik, a village east of Nablus. However, that restriction was later canceled due to protests from Mahsom Watch and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

4. Partially open enclaves: These areas cannot be accessed via main roads, which are closed to Palestinian traffic, but can be reached via side roads, and access is generally not restricted by manned checkpoints. Examples include Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron.

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