40 Years on, Palestinians Still Suffering

"Palestinians living in the West Bank are blocked at every turn," Smart said

"Harsh Israeli restrictions have caused the virtual collapse of the Palestinian economy and are exacerbating the increasingly fragile conditions in which Palestinians live and work," Malcolm Smart, AI Director for Middle East and North Africa Program, said in a statement.

The report, "Enduring Occupation: Palestinian under siege in the West Bank", says Israeli practices have resulted in unprecedented levels of despair, poverty and food insecurity in the occupied lands.

"Most Palestinians are now relying on aid for subsistence, with families reducing the quality and quantity of the food they consume and selling assets essential for their livelihoods."

The International Labour Organization said last week that poverty has dramatically soared in the Palestinian territories over the past year due to Israeli restrictions and closures.

A recent World Bank report said Israeli restrictions were dividing the occupied West Bank into economically isolated enclaves, preventing the already sluggish economy from growing and denying Palestinians access to half of their lands.

Israel is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War which saw the occupation of Gaza Strip (then under Egyptian control) and the West Bank (then under Jordanian control).

Death Checkpoints

Amnesty said the Palestinians are restricted by more than 500 checkpoints and blockades as well as a network of roads reserved solely for Jewish settlers.

"Palestinians living in the West Bank are blocked at every turn," Smart said.

"This is not simply an inconvenience -- it can be a matter of life or death. It is unacceptable that women in labor, sick children, or victims of accidents on their way to hospital should be forced to take long detours and face delays which can cost them their lives."

For many Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank, pregnancy has become a nightmarish experience as they are usually locked up at Israeli checkpoints.

Many end up delivering their babies with no doctors or sterilized equipment, only in the shadow of the Israeli checkpoints and under the watchful eyes of occupation soldiers.

According to the UN estimates, a total of 36 Palestinian babies have died because their mothers were detained during labor at Israeli checkpoints.

There are 270,000 Israeli settlers who live in the occupied West Bank among some 2.5 million Palestinians.

Separation Wall  

Amnesty said the Israeli barrier is causing death and exacerbating the Palestinian suffering.

Amnesty further asserted that the separation wall Israel is building in the occupied West Bank is causing death and exacerbating the Palestinian suffering.

"If the intention was simply to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from entering Israel, the barrier would be located on the Green Line, the border between Israel and the West Bank," said Smart.

"Yet, the reality is that most of it is being built on Palestinian land, in defiance of the International Court of Justice, and is separating Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank."

The Israeli separation barrier is a mix of electronic fences and concrete walls that will eventually snake some 900 kilometers (540 miles) along the occupied West Bank and leave even larger swathes of its territory on the Israeli side.

After the International Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling branding the wall as illegal, the UN General Assembly asked Israel to tear it down and compensate the Palestinians affected.

But Israel is defiantly pressing ahead with the construction of the wall which Palestinians see as nothing but a new Israeli land-grab and an attempt to pre-empt the borders of their future state.

"The barrier, together with these roads and roadblocks, benefit continuously expanding but unlawful Israeli settlements and make them territorially contiguous with Israel," Amnesty said.

Collective Punishment

The London-based rights watchdog said Israeli actions have "resulted in widespread human rights abuses and have also failed to bring security to the Israeli and Palestinian civilian populations."

It called on Israel to lift the blockades and other restrictions on Palestinians and ensure its actions target specific security threats rather than punish entire communities.

Amnesty urged Israel to cease the construction and expansion of settlements as a first step toward removing them.

It also called for cancelling all demolition orders on Palestinian homes and provide reparation to Palestinians whose homes and properties have been destroyed.

Amnesty pressed for an international action to stop the Israeli collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

"International action is urgently needed to address the widespread human rights abuses being committed under the occupation, and which are fuelling resentment and despair among a predominantly young and increasingly radicalized Palestinian population," it stressed.

"This must be backed up with a commitment to investigate and prosecute, through the exercise of universal jurisdiction, those who commit war crimes or other crimes under international law," Amnesty added.

"For forty years, the international community has failed adequately to address the Israeli-Palestinian problem; it cannot, must not, wait another forty years to do so."

Click to read Amnesty's Report