Road Closings Disrupt the West Bank
AWARTA, West Bank — The freshly spray-painted signs in this hamlet outside Nablus are a symbol of the new normal in the West Bank, seven months into a scattered wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
With the Israeli military having shut down the main road, local teenagers put up signs to coax Palestinian drivers along circuitous routes to Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian government, and Huwara, a neighboring village.
Such pop- up checkpoints and closings lasting several days have disrupted the routines of Palestinian residents, whose ability to move through the occupied territory was already precarious. But targeting individual villages sporadically is a stark departure from the widespread closings and curfews Israel imposed on West Bank cities during the second intifada.
Palestinian officials and their backers denounce the road closings as collective punishment. The Israeli military says the closings are aimed only at apprehending suspects and preventing further attacks.
“You are seeing Israel operating on lessons learned from the second intifada,” said Nathan Thrall, a Jerusalem- based analyst for the International Crisis Group. “Don’t do generalized closures. Don’t restrict work permits. Do the opposite.”
Since the surge of stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks began in October, Palestinians have killed 26 Israelis, a Palestinian bystander and two Americans. The Palestinian Health Ministry counts more than 200 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces during that period.
At the same time, Israel has offered 30,000 new permits for Palestinians to work in Israel, where day wages of $50 are double what they typically earn in the West Bank.
Asked about the road closings, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, denied that they were intended as broad punishment for Palestinians, and noted that certain West Bank locations “have been frequent hot spots” for attacks.
The Israeli military’s efforts to shut down the violence is helped by the West Bank’s topography, where Palestinian villages are dotted through rural hills, often interrupted by Jewish settlements. Only a few roads connect the villages.
After a Palestinian who shot and injured two soldiers March 11 was suspected to have fled to the village of Beit Urr al-Tahta, Israeli forces shut down a main road nearby. That effectively cut off seven villages, upturning the lives of their 35,000 residents. The usual 15-minute commute to Ramallah was suddenly a convoluted hourlong drive through narrow lanes and farm roads. “The students are late for school, the teachers are late for school, the employees are late for work,” said Ali Al- Shamy, a 60-year- old factory owner.
Omar Mousa, a 50-year- old bus driver, steered his vehicle onto the main road the morning after Israeli forces suddenly lifted their closing of the area.
“I swear to God, they are just messing with us,” he grumbled.
Israel says it is just trying to prevent future attacks.