Israeli Occupation Checkpoints within the West Bank: Reality Belies Olmert's Words

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When media monitors went to check the results of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's pledge to make significant changes in West Bank checkpoints following the meeting with President Abbas, they were unpleasantly surprised. Within two hours of the announcement, the Yitzhar Checkpoint was reimposed after having been removed in the past.

Yitzhar is at the northern entrance of the town of Huwara in southern Nablus. Within months the street, which is located between the Za'atara and Huwara checkpoints, is to be converted into a settler-only bypass road linking the Israeli settlements to Qalqilia inside the West Bank.

Citizen Fadi Ammar works in a government ministry office in Ramallah. When he left for work during the early morning hours he was subjected to even more severe treatment at Huwara Checkpoint than before the Israeli announcement that conditions at West Bank checkpoints would “ease-up.” Female soldiers forced men to remove their shirts for inspection during transit.

In northwestern Nablus, Checkpoint 17 had essentially been removed by Israeli soldiers withdrawing from it. But within two hours, they were back. A young Burka Village resident, Mohammad, said that he had considered the Israeli Prime Minister's declarations to be signs of “good faith,” but found they were only intended to improve the international view of the Israelis. Here reality belies words. Israel had also announced its intention to removed tens of the 400 dirt roadblocks between cities in the West Bank. That did not happen either.

The verdict in the public eye as to the results of the meeting that President Abbas had with the Israeli Prime Minister lies in the developments on the ground. The Palestinian Initiative for Global Dialogue and Democracy indicated that simply to have lessened the prohibition on the freedom of movement within the West Bank between Palestinian towns would have done wonders for the Israeli image, that is if they cared about the Palestinian perception. The fact that Palestinians are still willing to trust these “agreements” or declarations of “good faith” are a testament to the good will of the Palestinian people. Unfortunately the proof is in the dissembling of the Israeli Prime Minister. His words are for international consumption, not for reality.

Palestinian citizens traveling through the Za'atara barrier, east of Salfit, were on Wednesday faced with provocative measures from the Israeli soldiers stationed at the barrier.

Ma'an's correspondent reported that Israeli soldiers ordered Palestinians to leave their vehicles, and make them wait under the heavy rain, claiming to want to search the cars and check the ID's of the citizens.

The barrier of Za'atara has no shelter, and the Palestinians that get held there suffer from the heat during the summer and from the rain and cold in winter. It has been noted that many Palestinians are often detained for arbitrarily-decided lengths of time, while they have to wait to be allowed to pass through.

Political analyst and writer Dr. Qassem among those detained for hours in the rain at checkpoint

Although the Israeli Prime Minister promised changes at West Bank checkpoints, reports continue to come in to the contrary. At Za'tara Checkpoint in the north, bus loads of workers and students traveling from Qalqilia to Ramallah were forced to stand outside in the rain for lengthy inspections today.

Forty two year old Qalqilia resident Mahmoud Zaid told PNN that he was on a bus heading for work Wednesday morning. “We did not expect that they would make us get out of the bus. It was pouring rain. But the soldiers insisted and did not heed any request to wait inside the bus during the searching.”

Zaid continued to report on the actions of Israeli soldiers when some Palestinians attempted to document the situation. “Some passengers tried to use their mobile phone cameras to film the treatment of the passengers who were at the mercy of the rain and Israeli forces, but the soldiers threatened them with arrest and destruction of the mobile phone if anyone attempted to photograph the goings on.”

Dr. Abdel Qassem, Political Science Professor at Nablus' An Najah University and political analyst and writer, was with his colleague Karim Hammad. They waited at the military checkpoint for over two hours on what could have been a short trip to Qalqilia to participate in a political forum.

The Israeli government announced that it was removing 27 of 400 military checkpoints throughout the West Bank, but that has not happened as has been amply reported. And this morning the Israeli government said it was “postponing” the alleged removal of military roadblocks for a week without providing a reason.