Israel Enforces New Travel Rules
By JAMIE TARABAY
.c The Associated Press
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) - Israel is enforcing new restrictions in the West Bank, requiring Palestinians to obtain permits to move from town to town, and putting up fences and digging trenches to block those trying to sneak past soldiers.
Palestinians fear Israel is making permanent what was to have been a temporary emergency measure - military blockades of West Bank towns aimed at preventing Palestinian terror attacks. Hundreds of Israelis have been killed in bombings and shootings since Israeli-Palestinian fighting erupted 20 months ago.
Israel denies Palestinian claims that it is carving up the West Bank to get the area ready for a final peace deal as envisioned by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Israel says it has begun issuing permits for travel in the West Bank as a humanitarian gesture - to ease the hardships caused by the prolonged blockades - and that restrictions will be lifted as soon terror stops.
Since fighting began in September 2000, Palestinians have been largely confined to their communities, with a network of military checkpoints and ramparts enforcing the blockades that have paralyzed daily life.
In many areas, Palestinians sneak around the barriers, driving through fields, climbing over mounds of earth and walking single-file along narrow dirt paths. Those caught by Israeli troops usually have their car keys or ID cards taken. Some who have tried to sneak around checkpoints have been killed by army fire.
In recent weeks, following a new rash of suicide bombings, the military has accelerated the construction of barriers on the outskirts of Palestinian towns.
On the outskirts of Beit Jalla, a 9-foot-high barbed-wire fence stretches for several miles, separating the Palestinian town from Gilo, a Jewish neighborhood built on war-won land annexed to Jerusalem. A broad trench, about six feet deep, runs along the fence. Army jeeps patrol from time to time.
The house of the 14-member Darwish family has ended up on the wrong side of the fence; the Darwishes are now cut off from Beit Jalla, but are not allowed to go in the other direction, toward Jerusalem, because they are West Bank residents.
Similar fence-and-trench systems have been spotted in other West Bank areas, including Beit Sahour near Bethlehem and on the outskirts of Ramallah.
Yarden Vatikai, an adviser to Israel Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, said the barriers are meant to prevent infiltrations by Palestinian militants. In addition, Israel is planning walls and fences that would run for 50 miles along the so-called ``Green Line,'' the invisible boundary with the West Bank.
``We are not looking to fence in anyone, we are trying to stop this massive attack of suicide bombers,'' Vatikai said.
The Palestinians are suspicious of the new measures. ``President (Yasser) Arafat considers this a dangerous measure by the Israelis that is endangering the whole peace process,'' said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a senior aide to the Palestinian leader.
The Palestinians want to create a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with east Jerusalem as its capital. Under interim peace accords, the Palestinians control 17 percent of the West Bank and have civil authority in another 23 percent,
Sharon has said a Palestinian state is inevitable, but leans toward offering them more or less the land they now control - in sections divided by settlements.
Some Palestinians said Israel's new measures are a step toward implementing the Sharon concept. Michael Tarazi, a PLO lawyer, said the permit system ``highlights Israel's increasingly visible apartheid regime.''
Israeli government spokesman Dore Gold denied Israel has a hidden agenda. ``Anyone who's saying we created cantons or changed the administrative structure of the West Bank is simply engaging in disinformation,'' he said.
The permit system has been emerging gradually in recent weeks. Under the new regulations, Palestinians need passes to travel among the eight main towns in the West Bank. As in the past, travel to Israel, east Jerusalem and Gaza is prohibited.
The Hazin family from Bethlehem recently applied to travel to Ramallah for a family wedding. Nina Hazin, 52, went by taxi to an Israeli military post outside Bethlehem to fill in the forms, and three days later the permit was issued.
The permit listed every detail for their trip, almost like a visa to a foreign country - the location of the checkpoint, the names of the people traveling, including the cab driver and the make of his car, and how long the permit was valid.
Even with the permit, it was not a smooth ride, said Hazin's son, Elias, 26. It took three hours - three times normal - to get to Ramallah, and the Hazins had to pass three checkpoints, being searched at each one. ``It is making things more difficult,'' Hazin, a Bethlehem University employee, said of the new rules.
Ofir Haham, a spokesman for Israel's military government in the West Bank, said the permits are intended to ease hardships, not compound them. Without such passes, he said, hardly anyone would be able to travel.
The Palestinian Authority has asked Palestinians not to apply for the new permits, and Israeli human rights groups have also condemned the plan.
Israeli background checks would rule out many Palestinians, said Lior Yavne of the human rights group B'tselem. ``Anyone who spent two weeks in jail 10 years ago will be denied a permit on security grounds,'' Yavne said.
05/24/02 14:39 EDT
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. |
