Ref: 38/2006
Date: 23 April 2006
Time: 11:30 GMT
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Completely Isolate the Northern West Bank from the South
In the early morning hours of Saturday, 22 April 2006, IOF started to implement a complete separation of the northern West Bank from the South. IOF restricted the movement of Palestinians in a way that has not previously been seen since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada.
According to PCHR’s initial investigation and eyewitness accounts, IOF troops stationed at Za’tara checkpoint, south of Nablus, started to restrict the movement of civilians from the northern West Bank to Ramallah, Jericho and the southern West Bank. Troops prevented all civilians from crossing the checkpoint in order to travel south. Only a small number of physicians, ambulances and elderly patients were allowed to pass through. PCHR’s fieldworker reported that he saw IOF troops turning back Palestinian civilian vehicles that came to the checkpoint. In addition, IOF erected temporary roadblocks in the intersections of main roads and bypass roads used by Palestinians to go around the checkpoint. Scores of vehicles were detained and taken to nearby Israeli settlements and military camps. Civilians are therefore forced to travel long distances, walk through rough terrain and use more than one transportation vehicle to reach their places of work and study.
These punitive measures, which are an implementation of decisions taken by the Israel government last week, will result in a further deterioration of the economic and humanitarian situation of the Palestinian people. They also constitute a further violation of their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. These restrictions are similar to the movement restrictions imposed by IOF on checkpoints at the border of the Gaza Strip, since the unilateral disengagement from the Strip in 2005. PCHR is concerned that similar restrictions on travel will now be enforced between West Bank governorates. Such restrictions will result in total control over commercial movement in the West Bank and may deny Palestinians basic humanitarian needs, by controlling the movement of goods and food stuffs.
It is noted that Za’tara checkpoint is currently being developed into an “international” crossing similar to Qalandia checkpoint, which was officially opened as such on 4 April 2006. Za’tara checkpoint separates the northern and southern parts of the West Bank, as well as its eastern and western areas. The checkpoint is part of the Israeli plan, which aims to divide the West Bank into 3 Bantustans.
PCHR reminds the High Contracting Parties of the 4th Geneva Convention relevant to the Protection of Civilians at Times of War (1949) that protected persons cannot be punished for crimes they did not commit, as stated in article 33 of the convention. Further, the convention prohibits collective punishment and all threats, terrorism, and reprisals against protected individuals and their property. The Centre calls upon the High Contracting Parties, individually and collectively, to fulfill their legal and moral responsibilities. The Centre calls upon them to work towards ensuring Israel’s respect of the convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), as stipulated by article 1 of the convention. The silence of the international community encourages Israel to act as a state above the law, and to perpetrate more violations of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law.
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