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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel to remove 16% of West Bank road blocks before Eid |
| 2009-09-17 |
| Ma'an - Israel will remove 100 of its 613 roadblocks that riddle the West Bank, a military statement announced Wednesday. The roadblocks, earth mounds, access gates, guard towers, trenches and road barriers that Israeli military forces installed in the West Bank beginning in 2000 block the access of Palestinians to swaths of land, other villages and cities within the Israeli occupied area. Militarized checkpoints between the occupied West Bank and Israel and Israeli annexed areas bar Palestinians from leaving the West Bank. These checkpoints will not be removed under the current Israeli announcement. On order of the Israeli military chief Gabi Ashkenazi and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a statement said, "the decision to carry out these improvements was made." The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) marked a trend in Israeli checkpoint and traffic regulation in a June position paper, noting the creation of travel corridors that ensure quick passage for Palestinians from city to city, while carving up the West Bank and spending billions of shekels ensuring Palestinians do not move near settlements. The road infrastructure being built in the West Bank, according to OCHA, reinforces "the exclusion of Palestinians from the primary road network .the paving of these roads entails the expropriation of private and publically-owned land, thus further shrinking the space available for Palestinian development." Further, the organization notes "Approximately 28% of the West Bank is designated as either closed military zones or as nature reserves." The Israeli military statement did not indicate which roadblocks would be removed, but noted that work was expected to finish by the end of Ramadan holiday Eid Al-Fitr, which starts Sunday. The Israeli statement closed noting "the decision is a continuation of the government policy to improve the economic situation in the region while maintaining the operational flexibility of the Israel Defense Force and security forces." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 85% of the MSM will ignore this. |
| Posted by: liberal hawk 2009-09-17 09:37 |