People behind Bars of Concrete
Collective Punishment in the
name of Security
A PHRMG report
March 2001
Written by: Ann Kristin
Brunborg
Table
of contents
1. Introduction
2. General Closure, Curfew and Internal Closure
3. The Geography of Internal Closure
3.1
3.2
4. A Life behind Blocks of Concrete and Hills of Sand
4.1 The
4.2 The Unmanned Roadblocks –
Depriving people from escape in an emergency
4.3 Rotting Crops in the
5. Racist Policies
6. Palestinian Responses
7. Conclusion
1. Introduction
Since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada, the
Palestinian people in the
The Israeli army justifies closure by referring to
“security needs”, or what can be labelled as “military necessity” in
international humanitarian law. The purpose of this report is to bring a few
examples to test this claim. What about those villages and areas where there
has been no clashes, shooting incidents, attacks on settlements or by-pass
roads since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada? Most of these peaceful villages
consist of farmers, and they have not taken part in any hostilities during the
last months. Still, their villages are closed or under curfew. In early March,
the main road in Birzeit was dug up by Israeli soldiers, and in the process
they damaged the electricity and telephone networks. All the villages around
Birzeit are now closed off, and access to
The draconian measure of closure has been used before,
but not in the same way as during this intifada. Three million Palestinians
have been living a “life behind bars” during different periods since
This report will bring out some examples of how it is
to live isolated in a village or town, cut off from medical care, food supplies
or other services – and from relatives. The principal rights involved are the
right to work and make a living, the right to proper medical treatment, the
right to education, and the right to maintain family life.
2. General Closure, Curfews and
Internal Closure
The primary objective of this report is to examine the
Israeli army’s justifications for imposing internal closures and unmanned
roadblocks in areas where there have been no clashes or shooting incidents
since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada.
There are three types of restrictions on freedom of
movement imposed in the Palestinian population:
1. General and comprehensive closure has been
imposed since 1993 on Palestinians who needs to enter
2. Curfew is an extreme restriction on freedom
of movement, because it imprisons an entire population within the confines of
their homes. Harsh curfews have been imposed on the H2-area in
3. Internal Closure is “a siege imposed on
towns, villages and areas in the
3. The Geography of Internal Closure
3.1
On 25.01.2000, the Israeli army separated the southern
part of the Gaza Strip from its northern part. On 02.01.2001, the Israeli army
separated the Gaza Strip into three isolated parts for the first time since
29.09.2000. Salah Eddin road was closed at Alshuhada’/Nitsareem junction to the
south of
1. The
northern zone: It extends from Beit Hanoun in the north till Alshuhada’/
Netzarim junction in the south.
2. The
middle zone: It extends from Alshuhada’ junction in the north till Kfar Darom
junction in the south.
3. The
southern zone: It extends from Kfar Darom junction in the north till Rafah in
the south.
This has made
3.2
The different cities of the
60 % of the
In the
The Northern West Bank have been seriously affected by
the closure. The areas around Nablus,
Jenin and Tulkarem in the north constitutes mostly of small farming villages,
suffering from not being able to sell their crops because the roads have been
dug up or closed by unmanned concrete barriers.
Central West Bank: There are two or three checkpoints
between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Palestinian cars find alternative routes to
travel, emerging just a few meters from the chekcpoints. It is evident that the
Israeli soldiers know about the alternative routes, but they do not attempt to
close them. Closing off ar-Ram and Ramallah from Jerusalem might result in
heavier clashes and a larger outcry from the Palestinians. The ‘Atara village
and it’s 4000 residents is located north of Ramallah. Most of the villages
around Ramallah suffer from internal closure. The only road leading to the
villages has been blocked since early October 2000. Several families in the village has reached
an extremely low level of living conditions.
The Israeli stranghold on Jericho and the Jordan
Valley is especially harsh. Bulldozers have been digging an impassable trench
along the length of the Jodan Valley highway. On the other side of the road
steep mounds of dirt have been placed to block access to the villages alongside
it. From the Jordan Valley it is no longer possible to travel to the West Bank
cities of Nablus, Jenin or Tulkarem, as road number 57 have been barred by
concrete and recently manned by Israeli soldiers.
4.
A Life behind Blocks of Concrete and Hills of Sand
The internal closures are enforced by blocking the
access roads to the towns and villages in several alternative or cumulative
ways. One is to place huge concrete blocks across roads. Another is to build up
dirt piles. These barriers are mostly unmanned and will be discussed below. A
third way of enforcing the closure is to place manned checkpoints and to place
jeeps or tanks at the entrance of villages.
Pedestrians are normally able to bypass the roadblocks
when soldiers are not present, while vehicles cannot cross. Trucks arriving
with necessities such as foodstuff and medicine and in emergency medical cases
are supposed to be allowed to enter and leave by coordination with the Israeli
Civil Administration or by the Israeli District and Liaison Office (DCO).
However, in many of these special cases, movement is not assured.
On December 10, 2000 the Israeli army issued a new
order, saying that Palestinian men were not allowed to travel alone in a
private vehicle, or vehicles with only men would not be allowed to drive. Men
can only travel by service taxis or public transport. In Gaza, this policy
developed a new business for a period, where small boys stood by checkpoints
and charged 1 shekel for riding with the drivers through the checkpoints – and
then return to the other side by foot. Palestinian drivers are treated brutally
when attempting to bypass checkpoints. The Israeli soldiers often confiscate
the driver’s car keys, and punctures the tires. Drivers try to leave towns and
villages by side, dirt roads. These roads are also blocked when the Israeli
soldiers discover them. It is apparent that the Israeli army have been
especially strict in blocking access to villages close to Israeli settlements.
The US-based organisation Human Rights Watch reports
that Israeli soldiers are systematically abusing Palestinian drivers in the
West Bank, often subjecting them to serious beatings and humiliating treatment
and causing extensive damage to their vehicles. According to the group,
hundreds of Palestinian drivers have suffered form this reatment since the
beginning of the al-Aqsa intifada. Hanny Megally, executive director of the HRW
Middle East and North Africa division, says that: “Israeli soldiers are
routinely beating Palestinian drivers, slashing their tires, or shooting at
their vehicles simply because they are travelling on roads declared ‘closed’ by
Israeli authorities”. [9]
A survey conducted by the Development Sudies Programme
at Birzeit University was published on 19 February 2001.[10]
According to the study, 73 % of Palestinian households have seen their income
decline over the past four months. 27 % have completely lost their source of
income. Further, 11 % have been deprived completely from schooling or
university access. As many as half of the West Bank residents have experienced
difficulties in gaining access to health services. Older Palestiniand face more
difficulties in getting health services.
Economic hardship is higher in Gaza than it is in the
West Bank. In Gaza, more people have lost their jobs and more have lost all
sources of income.[11]
Since January 5, 2001, the Israeli army allowed
movement at Netzarim intersection in Gaza between 9-11 in the morning and 3-5
in the afternoon. This is the only main road left linking Gaza north with the
south, and it is crucial for the movement of food, other goods and workforce.
Information to which the road is open or not is hard to come by, and the
Israeli army has been changing “opening hours” as it has suited them. In cases
where restrictions on movement were lifted, they were replaced shortly
afterwards as a collective punishment in retaliation for attacks against
Israeli soldiers or civilians in other locations.
Picture: Close to one thousand vehicles waiting to
pass from Kfar Darom to Netzarim under conditions best described as a
traditional cattle drive.
The PHRMG representatives crossed from Netzarim to
Kfar Darom on several occasions. The scene resembles a traditional cattle
drive. More than one thousand cars wait by Netzarim to go south. The same
amount wait by Kfar Darom to go north. There are donkey charts, trucks with
food, vegetables, livestock, gas and equipment. United Nations vehicles, Red
Cross vehicles, ambulances and thousands of people crammed together in public
transportation vehicles. Vehicles start lining up three to four hours before
“opening hours”. Israeli tanks and armoured cars are stationed by the
roadblocks. If vehicles come too close to the barriers or if the Israeli
soldiers at the checkposts wants vehicles to move, they simply start shooting
in the ground in front of vehicles or in the air. Masses of people waiting
behind the first series of cars and trucks do not know what they are shooting
at, so they start running away in full chaos, donkeys panic and children
scream. This happens several times during the hours you are waiting for the
soldiers to open the road.
You have two hours to do the trip. If you don’t make
it you’re stuck in the middle and will not be allowed to go back where you came
from. If this happens in the afternoon opening-hours, you’re forced to spend
the night. Only one side of the road is open from Kfar Darom, since the Jewish
settlers are using the other side (which has been blocked in by concrete
barriers for security concerns). Since only one side of the road is open you
frequently stop for oncoming traffic, loosing time. If a settlement vehicle
wants to cross all Palestinian cars are stopped, also during “opening hours”,
loosing precious time. You constantly worry if you will make it to the other
side. And you constantly worry about gunshots from Israeli soldiers. These
travel conditions are inhuman and unworthy. Cars fight each other in order to
pass the next roadblock. People quarrel. You will seldom have the chance to go
both back and forth in one day, and if the road for some reason is closed the
next day, you are stuck “on the other side”.
4.2 The Unmanned Roadblocks –
Preventing civilians from escaping in an emergency
The physical blocking of roads by concrete blocks and
dirt piles that can only be removed by
heavy mechanical equipment is different from stationing soldiers at
checkpoints, and has led to the deaths of several people in need of emergency medical
treatment. When no soldier is present and available for communication, a
vehicle cannot pass in a case of emergency.
The degree of effectiveness of the roadblocks and
barriers differ from place to place. It depends on topography and number of
alternative routes the residents manage to clear to avoid the checkpoints or to
get around the concrete barriers. In the isolated villages located in hills
around Ramallah and Hebron entry is impossible, while villages located on the
plains are more easy to access (like for example in Jenin). However, Jericho,
located on the planes in the Jordan Valley, have been effectively closed inn by
digging tunnels around the whole city. In the beginning of December the
alternative routes in and out of Jericho were destroyed by diggers and
bulldozers, and a tragic view of Palestinian cars and vehicles stuck in deep
trenches met travellers along the main road to Allenby.
4.3 Rotting Crops in the Jordan
Valley
North of Jericho along the main road to Tiberias there
are several small agricultural villages in Areas C of the West Bank. Around 800
people live in Mag Naajeh village (refugees from 1948, mostly from villages
near Haifa), and another 800 people in al-Fasayeh. An unknown number of
villagers live in tents and shacks in the Jiftlik-area.
There are no clinics for people without health
insurance, and Jericho (45 km) and Nablus (45 km) are blocked for entrance.
UNRWA provided no services to the villages in the area, since they traded their
cards for pieces of land to cultivate. But because of the closure, the
villagers were given back their UNRWA cards. By November 2000, their village
suffered severely from the closure of road 57 to Nablus and Tulkarem where most
of their vegetables are sold. On our first visit in early December 6, the only
hope for the villagers was that the road would stay open. However, the road was
closed with concrete barriers on the same day. It was unmanned for a long
period. Mag Naajeh has one elementary school and one secondary school. Teachers
were denied access from 29.09.00, but found alternative routes from the
beginning of November. The students attending high school in Maseriyya walk 10
kilometers from their home, as the road to Naseriyya is blocked.
Gideon Levy in Ha’aretz described the situation this
way after visiting the area: [12]
Here, in this beautiful and remote patch of earth on the edge of the Jordan Valley, all these people want to do is to work the land, to sell their crops, make a living and return home in peace. But the closures and blocades have now reached even the remotest of villages, and the lives of their residents, like those of all the Palestinians in the territories, have become hell on earth.If, on the bloody highways of Judea and Samaria [West Bank], one could possibly find “security” justifications (dubious as the may be) for imposing this kind of painful and severe collective punishment, here, between the mountains and the ravines, between the State of Israel and the Jordanian kingdom, between Areas A, B and C, there are no words in the face of the image of the pregnant woman stuck in the mud among the reeds.
This region has been quiet with no shooting episodes,
clashes or other incidents since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada. The
farmers consider themselves lucky that there are no activists in the area,
because they are totally dependent upon their farms and any demolishing of
agricultural land in this area would be catastrophic. The people residing in
the Jiftlik area have experienced violence and harassment by Israeli settlers
residing close to their land. Mag Naajeh experienced one episode in early
December, where the children of the village blocked the main road with stones.
An Israeli settler stopped his car and started shooting randomly around the
village with a M16 machinegun and breaking the windows of a Palestinian house
when they refused to open the door. This incident caused great fear among the
villagers, and means have been taken to prevent the children from playing near
the road.
All the villagers are farmers and depend on income
from selling vegetables on the markets in Tulkarem and Nablus. There are no
permits to work in Israel among the villagers. The roadblock on road 57 later was manned with Israeli soldiers to
prevent the use of alternative roads.
This closure, together with the delay of transporting the goods before
the road was completely blocked, led to their agricultural produce rotting
before reaching the market. After a month, the farmers simply stopped
harvesting the crops, since they could not afford to pay workers when the
produce could not be sold. Also the transport costs trippled, making the profit
negative. The transport sector has been totally paralysed since October last
year. The main problem is transportation of vegetables to Tulkarem. Before the
main road in Jiftlik to Tulkarem and Nablus was closed on 05.12.00, the trucks
spent 12 hours driving to Tulkarem, selling the goods and returning. The closure of towns and villages has lead to
a substantive decrease of the prices of vegetables. 1 box (14 – 15 kilogram)
squash: 5-7 NIS, 1 box tomatoes or eggplants: 3 NIS, 1 box cucumbers: 8 NIS.
Transportation costs have risen to 2 NIS per box, making the profit of selling
the crops negative after harvesting costs.
A farmer told Ha’aretz:[13]
We can’t sell our crops to the Jews or the Palestinians. We pick the vegetables, load the trucks and go. The road to Nablus is closed. Sometimes we’re caught and they hold us up. Sometimes the vegetables rot. Sometimes the soldiers throw it all on the floor. When it rains, the roads are full of mud and the trucks get stuck. And when the road isn’t muddy, the soldiers come, take our keys and documents, disappear and then come back after half a day or a whole day. Usually we sell in Tulkarem, Jenin and Nablus – tomatoes, eggplant, squash, peppers and a little corn. Now, they’re closed. Yesterday, they closed Jericho as well.
Mag Naajeh and the surrounding villages have received
food once, from a cooperation between three Palestinian Authority Ministries on
4 December 2000. Each family received 12 kg flour, 10 kg sugar, 7 kg rice, 3
liters oil, and 9 kg beans. The goods were distributed regardless of the size
of the families. There are no reports that they will receive more food from
this source. There are two good-sized wells in the area, and no shortage of
water.
Ironicly, the World Food Programme reports that
Jericho is one of the worst areas regarding food supplies, surrounded by rich
agricultural villages and the Jiftlik area. Families without a source of income
have reduced consumption to the minimum necessary for subsistence and live on
savings – if they have any. The number of families without income and savings
has increased with the duration of the crisis. Many rely on support from
extended families, charity, some assistance from the PA or from the World Food
Programme, who delivers food to non-refugees.
5. Racist Policy
The only roads that are regularly open to traffic are
“bypass” roads that connect Israeli settlements in the West Bank to Israel and
to each other.Palestinian drivers are officially prohibited from using these
roads.
Roadbloks are generally more harsh if its located near
a Jewish settlement.
The curfew in Hebron affects 50 000 Palestinians. The
400 Jewish settlers living in the area are not subjected to curfew. General
closure, curfews and internal closure is only imposed on Palestinians, it is
never imposed on Israeli citizens or Jewish settlers.
Jewish settlers can freely travel the roads,
Palestinians cannot. Jewish settlers have started putting up their own illegal
roadblocks around the West Bank, with no interference by the Israeli army.
Israel issues work permits based on age and marital
status, conditioning permits on possession of a magnetic card (a security
permit with coded information), it places checkpoints and operates patrols to
check the permits of those who enter, setting quotas of workers in each sector
and the like. Jewish civilians living in the Occupied Territories are not
subjects to this policy. The can enter and leave their settlement without
passing checkpoints or being asked to provide their ID, they can travel
unlimited to other Jewish settlements or to Israel, they do not have to apply
for travel permits, work permits or permits to go to hospital.
The outcome is an extreme racist policy, favouring one
group of human beings based on religion, race and nationality.
When visiting the official website of the Palestinian
Authority, there is a link to the issues of “Occupation, colonization,
repression. Military aggression continues. Documents and data about Israeli
practises”. But this side only ask you to click on different NGO links if you
want a detailed update on the intifada.[14]
There is no record from the PA about how many days the different villages and
cities have been under full closure. There is no comprehensive report or survey
of damaged houses, agriculture or other violations. And – there is no emergency
committee or otherwise coordinated effort to assist the Palestinian people
during this period of hardship. There is no PECDAR monthly bulletin available
for September 2000 to February 2001.
The Palestinian ministry of Labour offered at one
stage NIS 600 to everyone employed in Israel. But only those with work permits
in Israel could receive the money. This meant that most workers in the West
Bank were left out of the deal.
7. Concluding Remarks
Israel ratified the Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (CESCR) in 1991. Article 6 (1) of CESCR states that “The States
Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right to work, which includes the
right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely
chooses or accepts, and will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right”.
Israel has the duty to refrain from violating this right. The right to
education has been violated in the same manner. The Hague Convention
(Regulation 43) also ensures the welfare of a population under occupation.
[1] Palestine Human Rights Center (PCHR) in Gaza has detailed reports on closure and its economic implications (www.pchrgaza.org). See also B’tselem report “Civilians Under Siege”, January 2001.
[2] UNSCO Report, page 5.
[3] Ha’aretz, February 15, 2001.
[4] Bt’selem report “Civilians under Siege”, January 2001.
[5] See www.palestinercs.org for further details.
[6] Bt’selem, Civilians udner Siege, January 2001.
[7] PHRMG testimony, Ahali El Mawasi Charity Society, February 12, 2001.
[8] Btselem report, Civilians under Siege, January 2001.
[9] Human Rights Watch report, Israel: Palestinian Drivers Routinely Abused, 2 March 2001.
[10] Birzeit Univeristy, Development Studies Programme (DSP), Survey – Public Opinion Poll (3). The Impact of the Israeli-imposed Siege on Palestinian Living Conditions, February 19, 2001.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Gideon Levy, “Mired in the Mud”, Ha’aretz 09.02.2001.
[13] Ibid.
[14] http://www.pna.net/events/event_index.htm
[15] In 94 cases, Red Crescent ambulances were not allowed to cross Israeli army checkpoints (www.palestinercs.org). Ala Hamdan Abd al-Aziz Ahmed (10) from al-Sawiyeh (Nablus district) died on 14 October of a ruptured appendix, denied permission to travel to hospital twice. Na’im Atallah al-Abd Ahmad Hawwas (27) from Zawiyeh died of total kidney failure on 16 October, denied permission to go to hospital for dialysis. Farid Musa Issa Nasasrah died of gunshot wounds inflicted by Israeli settlers on October 17 because the ambulance was not allowed to cross a checkpoint to treat him or pick him up. On 26 February 2001, the two women Nada Hanani (Nablus) and Ma’azuza Rimawi (Beit Rima) died of heart attack after the ambulances carrying them were denied to pass checkpoints at Halamish junction near Ramallah and by the village of Salam.