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Israel Keeps Palestinians Blockaded in West Bank Towns
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A
Palestinian man shows his sick child to an Israeli soldier at a
checkpoint
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RAMALLAH,
West Bank, June 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Mohammed
Sadek’s drive home from his job in the West Bank city of Ramallah to
Jenin is only some 60 kilometers (37 miles), but these days he only
makes the trip once every two months.
Sadek,
who works at a Ramallah bank, says that going home “takes me an
entire day on difficult routes. That is why I prefer to stay put for
periods of up to two months.”
Sadek
is just one of many Palestinians frustrated by the Israeli blockade of
his town.
Ever
since the bloody Israeli military offensive on the
West Bank
launched late March, most Palestinian autonomous areas have been cut
off from each other by the Israeli army, in order to prevent
resistance fighters from entering
Israel
.
According
to Palestinian geographer, Khalil Tafkaji, the army maintains 25 fixed
checkpoints and more than 80 shifting ones in the
West Bank
and the Gaza Strip.
This
has limited the movement of thousands of Palestinian civilians, and
few now venture to cross from one autonomous area to another via
back-routes, bypassing Israeli checkpoints.
To
leave Ramallah, Palestinians take a difficult back-route they have
nicknamed “Tora Bora,” the region in
Afghanistan
which the
U.S.
bombed extensively in their so-called “war on terror”. Those
caught often have their vehicles impounded by Israeli occupation
troops who then use them as physical barriers on the routes.
The
blockade of the territories began shortly after the outbreak of the
Palestinian intifada in September 2000, but was reinforced after
hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office in March
2001.
Martin
Van Creveld, an Israeli military historian, said
Sharon
’s tactic to defeat the Palestinians is “to block their movements,
even though he knows that 99 percent of Palestinians have nothing to
do with armed actions.”
“He
takes no account of the effects on the Palestinian population,” Van
Creveld added, recalling that
Sharon
used the same tactics in the Gaza Strip in the 1970s when he commanded
the Israeli occupation army there.
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A
Palestinian child waiting to pass through a checkpoint |
For
Tafkaji, the cantonization of the
West Bank
has been
Sharon
’s plan since he was defense minister in 1982 and he is now
“completing his plan.”
The
Israeli defense ministry said Tuesday, June 11, that in a few days
work would start on a barrier separating
Israel
from the
West Bank
, aimed to keep out would-be Palestinian attackers.
The
montage of fences, trenches, walls and electronic surveillance devices
will extend 350 kilometers (220 miles).
According
to Van Creveld, the measure has the support of Israeli public opinion
and
Sharon
will carry it out.
However,
critics have said the fence will not bring increased security and will
further damage an already devastated Palestinian economy by completely
cutting off Palestinian workers from
Israel
.
A
U.N. and World Bank report published in April 2002 said any move to
tighten the net around the Palestinian territories would “increase
poverty and despair” and encourage the very bomb attacks the
Israelis are trying to prevent.
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