Israeli military-controlled checkpoints have been the bane of Palestinian travel since the early 1990s when Israel began establishing them throughout the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip as a means to prevent and control Palestinian movement.
According to the latest comprehensive survey conducted by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OCHA), there are 634 physical obstacles to movement throughout the West Bank, including 93 staffed checkpoints and 541 unstaffed obstacles (earthmounds, roadblocks, road barriers, etc.)
Collectively, these obstacles create a hermetic network of control valves which Israel opens and shuts at will. While Israeli settlers implanted throughout the West Bank have unrestricted access through these checkpoints, Palestinians find themselves increasingly confined to reservation-like ghettoes, deprived from any kind of normal educational, medical, social, economic, or familial existence.
It’s no wonder then that checkpoints are one of the most visible and despised symbols of Israel’s 42-year occupation. They physically entrench Israel’s notion of “separation” both between Palestinians and Israelis, as well as between Palestinians themselves - winning comparisons to apartheid from everyone from South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to John Dugard, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the OPT.
This is what the latter had to say about the phenomenon in 2007, a year before his tenure in the post was up:
Of course there are similarities between the OPT and apartheid South Africa. Anyone who experienced apartheid has a sense of deja vu when visiting the OPT. Laws and practices discriminate against Palestinians. Restrictions on movement within the West Bank and Jordan Valley resemble the «pass laws» of apartheid both in their discriminatory nature and brutal application. There is a system of «separate but unequal» roads for settlers and Palestinians - which was never even contemplated in apartheid South Africa. Jews may travel freely within the closed zone between the Wall and the Green Line but Palestinians require permits - which are frequently denied. The separate residential areas for Jews and Palestinians in Hebron remind one of the «group areas» for different races under apartheid. Palestinians are prohibited from living with their Arab Israeli spouses, but no such restrictions apply to foreigners living with Israeli Jewish spouses. House demolitions are carried out in a discriminatory manner. Over 9,000 Palestinian political prisoners are held in Israeli jails. Can it seriously be denied that such acts are committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over another racial group of persons - to use the language of the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid?
Dugard adds:
Israel takes care not to announce its apartheid practices. There are no signs on the roads or in the closed zone saying «No Palestinians Allowed» or «Settlers Only»; and there are no laws providing that only Palestinian houses built without a permit may be demolished. In this respect Israel has learnt the lesson of apartheid. But the result is the same - oppressive discrimination.
Apparently Dugard’s disdain for apartheid is not shared by all however.
Take a look at this picture taken from the Palestinian daily newspaper Al Quds this past Wednesday (11/11/2009).
It features the governor of the West Bank town of Jenin, Qadoura Mousa (second from right), Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, and Quartet Middle East Special envoy Tony Blair - cutting a ribbon at the opening ceremony of the reopening of the Jalama crossing point near Jenin.
The checkpoint was recently upgraded with money from USAID, and will now permit vehicular traffic between the Jenin district and the Galilee region.
When I first saw this picture, I was dumbfounded.
First, it discloses the lie that the Palestinian leadership is not engaged in any direct contacts with Israeli officials from the right-wing Netenyahu government.
Second, the idea that anyone (including a Palestinian official) would be willing to celebrate a symbol of apartheid is despicable in the least. The claim that this act will work to improve economic conditions is a sorry excuse. Traffic will only be one way, with Israeli citizens permitted to enter and buy cheaper produce inside the West Bank, but with Palestinians unable to reciprocate. Palestinian cars (green and white license plates) are not allowed to travel in Israel.
Third, in addition to continuing to supply Israel with military equipment, the United States government is now actively supporting checkpoint maintenance. Only Israeli soldiers man the Jalama checkpoint. This means that Israel (and its occupation) is now a direct benefactor of USAID money, despite not being on the list of countries entitled to such aid. The conclusion: America’s first Black American president is financing segregation.
