West Bank roadblock stifles peace hopes
7 Apr 2008
JERICHO, West Bank - The ordeal unfolds weekly in this oasis of palms and bright flowers: After bike tours and picnics and a few hours away from the tensions of daily life, Palestinian visitors get stuck in a chaotic traffic jam at an Israeli army checkpoint as they leave the West Bank's only resort.
Such roadblocks, Israel's initial response to attacks by Palestinian militants nearly a decade ago, have become a fact of life across the West Bank.
But perhaps nowhere is their disruptive presence more keenly felt ? and renewed promises of peace dividends more bitterly dismissed ? than among Palestinian families coming up against the Jericho checkpoint after trying to escape the tensions of West Bank life for a few hours.
"I think all the peace process is nothing, nothing, nothing," Palestinian motorist Shaker Hamada said angrily after getting stuck behind dozens of cars. "We have nothing, we just have talking."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, backed by the international community, has repeatedly called on Israel to remove checkpoints to boost peace talks. The issue is to come up again Monday, when Abbas holds his first meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in nearly two months.
After nightfall Friday, cars stretched for nearly half a mile from the Jericho checkpoint, which leads to the four-lane Dead Sea-Jerusalem highway. At times, cars stood three wide at the head of the line as some drivers tried to squeeze ahead of others. Dust and exhaust fumes mixed with honking horns.
Soldiers set up a second outgoing lane, but were clearly overwhelmed ? as on many preceding weekends ? and movement was slow.
The argument over roadblocks has raged since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, when Israel first covered the West Bank with a network of obstacles to deter gunmen and suicide bombers.
Israel says such travel restrictions remain key to fighting militants. The head of Israel's domestic Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, told the Cabinet on Sunday he could only recommend lifting internal checkpoints once Israel has completed construction of its West Bank separation barrier. That could take several more years. Construction began in 2002 and is only about two-thirds complete.
Yet since the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks this year, Israel has come under growing international pressure to ease movement in the West Bank in order to shore up Abbas, revive the Palestinian economy and show disheartened Palestinians that peace pays. Easing restrictions is also part of Israel's obligations under the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel realizes the importance of removing checkpoints in easing Palestinians' lives and contributing to peace, but "there are very real threats from hardcore terror cells in the West Bank. To ignore these threats on our civilian population is to ignore reality."
Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat, who lives in Jericho, a town of 25,000, said he and his colleagues have brought up the need to remove checkpoints in all top level meetings, whether with Olmert, international Mideast envoy Tony Blair or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Erekat said the credibility of peacemakers has already suffered badly in his hometown, whose critical tourism and agriculture industries cannot prosper without free movement.
"I'm the one who tells them (Jericho residents) we are going to make peace in 2008, we are going to end the occupation and get you the state," Erekat said. "They look at me the next day, when I go to the market, and they tell me, 'Dr. Erekat, you cannot even remove a roadblock.'"
Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced he would remove 50 unmanned earth mounds blocking traffic, out of what the U.N. says are several hundred such obstacles, and dismantle one checkpoint. That checkpoint was removed, but the military did not say Sunday how many mounds have been leveled.
Israel is also considering removing several other roadblocks by May, including one that prevents Palestinians from reaching the West Bank beaches of the Dead Sea, just south of Jericho. The main Jericho roadblock is not on the list, according to Israeli security officials.
Palestinians have dismissed Barak's announcement as a public relations exercise, saying it has changed little on the ground. Erekat noted that all the major roadblocks ringing towns and cities remain in place.
Jericho has been largely spared during last eight years of fighting, though several shooting ambushes on Israeli motorists were launched from there in the early days of the Palestinian uprising.
The Israeli military had no comment Sunday when asked for current security justifications for keeping the checkpoint. Last year, Jericho was considered safe enough for Olmert to visit ? his first trip to a West Bank town as prime minister.
At the checkpoint, drivers wait until a soldier signals them to approach. Those leaving Jericho present ID cards, and soldiers occasionally check ID numbers in a laptop. Entering town is easier, with soldiers mainly making sure that no Israelis enter; the army has declared all Palestinian towns off-limits to Israelis.
During the week, lines vary, but are largely manageable, usually with waiting times of a few minutes.
However, on the weekends, thousands visit Jericho to ride horses and bikes, eat in garden restaurants, or take trips in a cable car up to the cliff where tradition says Jesus wrestled with the devil for 40 days.
On Friday, hundreds crowded into Bananaland, a local picnic spot.
Families fired up barbecues, children splashed in a small pool or rode a camel, men crunched sunflower seeds and a few young men sat in a circle chanting to a drum. One of the owners, Abdel Karim Sidr, said he believed he could attract double the crowd if the roadblock was removed.
As daylight began to fade, park guest Fadel Tahboub, 60, considered his exit strategy. Puffing on a waterpipe, the Jerusalem resident said he'd probably stay in town until at least 10 p.m., in hopes the crowd at the roadblock would thin out by then. If it's still bad, he said, he might turn around and use the town's second exit, where there is no checkpoint, but which leads to a narrow, pothole-scarred road that is treacherous after dark.
Like many visitors to Jericho that day, he said removing the roadblock would go a long way in restoring his faith in peace. For now, he said, "all of them speak about peace ... but don't make peace."