Effects on Palestinian economic and social infrastructure
The checkpoints have also had an adverse effect on the economy, education, family relations and the general health of people surrounded by checkpoints.
According to OCHA, between March 2009 and June 2010 Israeli military removed 80 roadblocks that impeded vehicular access for limited numbers of farmers to agricultural land in Area C. ‘However no improvement was observed regarding access to much larger agricultural areas in the Jordan Valley.’
The Palestine Monitor reported that soldiers at checkpoints consistently stop ambulances and patients. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported 112 deaths and 35 stillbirths as a result of preventing medical personnel and patients from crossing checkpoints. The World Health Organization deplores “the incidents involving lack of respect and protection for Palestinian ambulances and medical personnel (…) as well as the restrictions on movement imposed on them by Israel, the occupying power, in violation of international humanitarian law”.
Due to “high level security warnings” from Israeli intelligence sources, certain checkpoints are immediately closed. B’Tselem reported that in 2006, there was 78 days in which checkpoints were closed. Some 150,000 workers within the Occupied Territories were unable to go to work as a result of these closures. Also because of closures and intensified security checks, trucks importing and exporting goods to and from the Occupied Territories are limited and thoroughly checked. Permits for all private, public and commercial vehicles need separate permits, whether or not the driver is also granted a permit. In addition, frequent reports by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics reinforce the evidence of the lapse and deterioration of the Palestinian economy. The report focuses on owners and managers within the Occupied Territories and analyzes as well as evaluates employee productivity, the acquisition of resources and problems with transportation of goods. All areas of the report show increasingly downward trends.
The checkpoints do not only add time taken for children to get to school but they also deter children from going to school indefinitely. Palestine Monitor reports that children are victim to insults, beatings and cursing by the Israeli soldiers. As a result of this intimidation more and more children are dropping out of school or postponing their education.
These physical impediments also act as rather effective tools for prohibiting family members from seeing each other. There is no travel between the West Bank and Gaza Strip. If an individual has a West Bank ID, that individual will not be allowed into Jerusalem and consequently, Israel. Israeli soldiers also reserve the right to refuse entry to individuals who they believe do not have the proper documentation to pass into certain cities in the West Bank. At some checkpoints in the West Bank, one must be over a certain age to pass through.
Checkpoints serve to make sure this elaborate system of entry and reentry is implemented with the utmost reliability and efficiency.
Palestine Monitor reports that since the emergence of checkpoints and their well know difficulty in passing to attain medical care, Palestinians now on average receive fewer check ups, vaccinations and pre-natal classes with 14% of expectant mothers preferring home births (up from 8.2%) rather than risking harm to themselves or their baby by attempting to pass through a checkpoint which can lead to either still births or death. Now only 82.4% compared with 95.6% before attend post-natal care.
Operating Costs
These highly elaborate and invasive mediums for controlling the travel habits of Palestinians, distributed in their hundreds throughout the West Bank, obviously have their costs. The efficiency of these imposing obstructions comes at a price, however, but as the Israelis believe the checkpoints to be integral for the security of their state, they are willing to spare no expense in making them operate even more reliably and at an even higher all-encompassing level. Israel is more preoccupied with spending time, money and resources defending their quarter of a million settlers in the West Bank and their soldiers guarding these checkpoints than they are in gradually evacuating them and working towards a viable two state solution. Despite rhetorical promises in the press, they are consolidating their position further rather than initiating movements of withdrawal.
President Bush evidently believes his statement that, ‘Israel has a right to defend itself’ because he endorses them greatly. The US currently includes Israel on their balance sheet and allocates them with around $3 billion dollars per annum in grants and loans. Israel, just more than a year ago, asked for a further $450 million (roughly double of what the US has promised the PA to help improve their infrastructure, security services and for humanitarian aid combined). This money is to ‘improve’ the effectiveness of the checkpoints by paying to install hi tech x-ray scanners and special explosion detection devices. The Israeli based Peace Now organization has pleaded for American money only to be used to install high tech systems at stations on the Green Line as supplying these systems across the separation barrier would violate US policy that ‘opposes spending US tax dollars in support of Israeli settlement activity and the perpetuation of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank’.
Controversially, earlier this year, the World Bank was contemplating helping fund the modernization of checkpoints for Israel. Although the World Bank cannot aid Israel due to the latter’s high capita income, it is deliberating getting involved to make the checkpoints more efficient so that more Palestinians get to work and thus improve the economy.
There has even been word circulating that supports an initiative to urge the Palestinians to pay for the upkeep of the checkpoints from their own funds, as it is allegedly being completed for their benefit.
International and Human Rights Law of Occupation
Article 33 of the IV Geneva Convention states that,
‘An occupying government may not use collective punishment or intimidation against the occupied population’.
Under Human rights law the occupying government must ensure freedom of movement, an adequate standard of living and as normal a life for the population as possible.
Under International law the occupation of Palestine is illegal, as is the establishment of settlements in the occupied territory.
In complete contrast to this, Human Rights Watch in 2005 stated that checkpoints displayed ‘a system of collective punishment, also in direct violation of Israel’s obligation as an occupying power, to provide welfare for the population it controls’.
Palestine Monitor views the checkpoint system as a tool to ‘judaize and entrench Israel’s illegal occupation’ as well as to humiliate the Palestinians with the checkpoints acting as a constant reminder of the occupation.
Israeli justification for the checkpoints
The Israeli army spokesperson's office informed B'Tselem that the prohibitions on Palestinian travel are based on “verbal orders” given to soldiers. This mode of operation adds a dimension of uncertainty and makes it difficult to critique the policy and test its validity in court.
The OCHA report said that currently, ‘the protection of Israeli settlements and of Israelis travelling along West Bank roads is the main justification given by the Israeli military for maintaining some of the key obstacles and restrictions impeding movement between Palestinian urban centers. One of the frequent arguments cited in this regard is that the blocked roads leading to Palestinian towns in the vicinity of settlements may serve, if opened for Palestinian use, as quick “escape routes” for perpetrators of attacks against these settlements, or against Israelis travelling along the adjacent roads.’
SOURCES
World Bank paper on ‘Movement and Access Restrictions in the West Bank’, May 2007
International Crisis Group
Human Rights Watch
Relief Watch
RTE
Reuters
Peace Now
Palestinian Bureau of Statistics
Palestine Monitor
IPCRI (Israeli / Palestine Center for Research and Information)
