"OCHA": The occupation suffocates Jerusalem and the West Bank with 399 military roadblocks

"OCHA": The occupation suffocates Jerusalem and the West Bank with 399 military roadblocks

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "OCHA", stressed that the Israeli arbitrary measures that undermine the living conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank have not stopped and are exacerbated, especially in Jerusalem and Hebron.

OCHA said in its bi-monthly report, Thursday, that Israel imposes a multi-level system of financial and administrative measures to restrict the Palestinians from their movement and movement.

The report continued, with a copy of “:”: “These measures consist of physical obstacles, including barriers, bureaucratic and administrative requirements, such as issuing permits, and classification of areas as either restricted or closed access, including“ firing zones. ”Israeli restrictions are hampered. To move, to varying degrees, to access services and resources, disrupt family and social life, undermine livelihoods, and hinder the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide assistance.

The report pointed out that, over the past two decades, the Israeli authorities have worked to construct a network of secondary roads designated for the Palestinians, including 50 tunnels and a subway, through which they reconnect Palestinian communities, which cut physical obstacles to each other to devote the main roads in West Bank, apartheid roads for settlers.

In its report, OCHA reviewed the results of a recent survey on arbitrary obstacles and Israeli measures impeding movement, highlighting the impact of unjust restrictions imposed on access to a Palestinian population in the western area of ​​Ramallah, and on farmers who own land Isolated by the wall around the occupied West Bank.

The last comprehensive survey was conducted between January and February 2020, the results of which revealed that the number of permanent permanent obstacles (barriers, dirt berms, road gates, etc.) reached 593 obstacles that cut off Palestinian villages, towns, camps and cities, and incurred the Palestinians Millions annually, instead of hours of agreement, fuel, coffee and clothing.

The survey confirmed a trend that has been observed over the past few years, where fixed obstacles, such as roadblocks and dirt berms, have been replaced by obstacles that the occupation army calls "flexible", such as partial barriers and road gates that remain open in most cases, but can be closed at any time from times. From time to time, the occupying forces are stationed at partial checkpoints or in a tower, not on the ground.

The survey identified a total of 108 such barriers, which increased from 73 in the previous survey.

During the past year (April 2019 - March 2020), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs documented 1,064 cases in which Israeli soldiers stationed partial checkpoints and carried out inspection procedures. The survey also identified a total of 154 road gates, which can be opened and closed at any time based on On the criteria decided by the leaders of the Israeli army. Partial barriers and road gates together accounted for about half of the number of obstacles surveyed.

The report, entitled "Obstacles with a greater degree of (flexibility)", explained that with the sudden deployment of sudden checkpoints on a temporary basis on the main roads for several hours at a time, and over the same period of 12 months, the Israeli forces deployed more than 1,500 A barrier of these barriers. These obstacles form part of a system based on tightening control, based on a decision by one of the leaders of the occupation army, its airspace, and the whims of the settlers.

The United Nations has called, as decided by the International Court of Justice in its fatwa issued in 2004, that Israel must dismantle the sections of the wall that penetrate inside the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and at the same time abolish the system of gates and related permits, in order to allow the Palestinians access to Their lands located in the "seam zone" freely.

The obstacles that the soldiers are stationed on are also spread throughout most of the area under Israeli control in the heart of the city of Hebron, the largest city and city in the occupied West Bank, which is 101 isolated from the rest of the city (or 17 percent of the total obstacles), including 32 barriers. The movement of Palestinian vehicles within this area is subject to many restrictions, and restrictions are imposed on pedestrian access to some areas there, so that their entry is restricted to its residents and not others.

Closure of village entrances: the case of Deir Nizam

As a model for a study, the United Nations surveyed the village of Deir Nizam and said that the village of Deir Nizam (with a population of 900 people) is one of 11 villages located in the West of Ramallah Governorate, near the illegal Israeli settlement of Hallamish, in violation of international law. There are three roads that lead to the village. One of these roads, branching from Road 450, runs along this settlement, and requires those who cross it to cross a roadblock, while the other two call for passage through a road gate, and the Israeli army often closes these gates on the pretext that children from the village are throwing cars from Israeli settlers who travel On road 465 with stones. The village also witnesses high rates of searches and arrests, with the occupation army carrying out 24 operations in 2019 and arresting 39 Palestinians, more than half of them children.

The report, "OCHA": "After the Palestinians opened fire and wounded an Israeli soldier on February 6, 2020, next to another settlement in this area (which is Dolph), the village of Deir Nizam witnessed tighter restrictions imposed on access to it, as well as the increased presence of the Israeli army on The entrances to the village, measures ranged from closing one or both gates together from several hours each day to imposing a complete closure on this community. It has also imposed restrictions on access to other villages located near the village of Deir Nizam, which has affected an estimated 30,000 of its Palestinian residents.

In addition, searches and arrests increased during the first two months of the year 2020, with 14 operations recorded, which is more than half of the operations carried out during the whole of 2019.

The United Nations stressed that most Palestinian farmers must obtain special permits from the Israeli authorities in order for them to access their agricultural lands in the area between the wall and the Green Line, or the "seam zone". This requirement also applies to family members of farmers and workers in the agricultural sector.

The past few years have witnessed a noticeable decline in the rates for issuing these permits. Meanwhile, it establishes new permanent systems.

If granted permits, farmers must pass through certain gates. During the olive harvest in 2019, 74 gates and five barriers were allocated to access farmland. Of these gates and barriers, only 11 gates and barriers were opened on a daily basis, ten for a day or a few days a week and during the olive picking season. The majority of the gates, which are 53, were only open during this season.

The United Nations said that as a result of the new measures taken by the occupation army in the context of the emergency resulting from the Coruna virus, additional restrictions were imposed on Palestinian access to their lands behind the wall. Field reports indicate that the occupation authorities suspended most of the permits that were valid in the governorates of Jenin, Tulkarm, Qalqilya and Salfit.