Montag
10-23-2008, 02:44 PM
Freedom to move -- except for Palestinians
by KAREN LONGSTRETH
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-10-15-freedom-to-move-except-for-palestinians
excerpt:
Imagine that an outside government denies permission for your seriously ill son to travel to a nearby hospital. Or that occupiers of your land periodically close the road to your only medical school. Think about having the road to your house barricaded, requiring you to climb over a mound of earth to enter your home.
What if you want to visit a relative or attend a professional meeting 14km away but have to apply in writing to the outside government every time, and are usually denied the permit? Imagine having to stop once, twice, maybe three times every day going to and from work to show identification to armed soldiers.
These are actual examples of mobility restrictions that the Israeli government imposes on the 2,5-million Palestinian residents of the West Bank of occupied Palestine. One must live and travel in the West Bank, as I did the past two summers, to see how the Palestinian people suffer under these oppressive policies.
Freedom of movement is integral to a peaceful and healthy society, and its violation undermines article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence."
The inability to travel freely in their own land impedes Palestinians' access -- or denies it completely -- to schools, hospitals, jobs and families and is taking a toll on the entire fabric of Palestinian society. For many, the pervasive and increasing difficulty travelling in the West Bank has become the worst part of the 41-year military occupation.
Israel restricts the mobility of Palestinians in the West Bank in essentially two ways: closure obstacles and permits.
In April this year, according to data of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there were 607 checkpoints and physical obstacles throughout the West Bank. Maintained by Israeli security forces, they comprised 71 main checkpoints, 17 partial checkpoints, 84 road gates, 72 road blocks, 238 mounds of earth, 17 trenches, 75 road barriers and 33 walls of earth.
In my travels between Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and Nablus, I was appalled at the sheer number of them and the hardships they imposed, especially on children and the elderly.
Another means of impeding movement is the restriction of most major highways in the West Bank to Israelis for access to their hilltop communities (settlements), displacing Palestinians to time- and fuel-consuming back roads. The worst road I travelled is called the "Valley of Fire" by Palestinians -- a steep, tortuous, unlit, two-lane road between Bethlehem and Ramallah that takes 60 to 75 minutes to negate, instead of the 20-minute drive on the direct highway reserved for Israeli settlers.
by KAREN LONGSTRETH
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-10-15-freedom-to-move-except-for-palestinians
excerpt:
Imagine that an outside government denies permission for your seriously ill son to travel to a nearby hospital. Or that occupiers of your land periodically close the road to your only medical school. Think about having the road to your house barricaded, requiring you to climb over a mound of earth to enter your home.
What if you want to visit a relative or attend a professional meeting 14km away but have to apply in writing to the outside government every time, and are usually denied the permit? Imagine having to stop once, twice, maybe three times every day going to and from work to show identification to armed soldiers.
These are actual examples of mobility restrictions that the Israeli government imposes on the 2,5-million Palestinian residents of the West Bank of occupied Palestine. One must live and travel in the West Bank, as I did the past two summers, to see how the Palestinian people suffer under these oppressive policies.
Freedom of movement is integral to a peaceful and healthy society, and its violation undermines article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence."
The inability to travel freely in their own land impedes Palestinians' access -- or denies it completely -- to schools, hospitals, jobs and families and is taking a toll on the entire fabric of Palestinian society. For many, the pervasive and increasing difficulty travelling in the West Bank has become the worst part of the 41-year military occupation.
Israel restricts the mobility of Palestinians in the West Bank in essentially two ways: closure obstacles and permits.
In April this year, according to data of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there were 607 checkpoints and physical obstacles throughout the West Bank. Maintained by Israeli security forces, they comprised 71 main checkpoints, 17 partial checkpoints, 84 road gates, 72 road blocks, 238 mounds of earth, 17 trenches, 75 road barriers and 33 walls of earth.
In my travels between Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and Nablus, I was appalled at the sheer number of them and the hardships they imposed, especially on children and the elderly.
Another means of impeding movement is the restriction of most major highways in the West Bank to Israelis for access to their hilltop communities (settlements), displacing Palestinians to time- and fuel-consuming back roads. The worst road I travelled is called the "Valley of Fire" by Palestinians -- a steep, tortuous, unlit, two-lane road between Bethlehem and Ramallah that takes 60 to 75 minutes to negate, instead of the 20-minute drive on the direct highway reserved for Israeli settlers.