19.8.04

 
   Forbidden Roads Regime in the West Bank - An apartheid practice  


Last week, B'Tselem published a report on the Forbidden Roads Regime that Israel operates in the West Bank. The report's findings show that on forty-one roads and sections of roads throughout the West Bank, covering more than 700 kilometers of roadway, Israel implements a racist policy in which it restricts or completely prohibits the movement of Palestinian vehicles. On these roads, Israeli vehicles are allowed to travel freely. The report contains a map depicting the forbidden roads.

The report describes the permit system for movement that Israel has established. B'Tselem found that permits for Palestinians to travel on restricted roads are issued at the sole discretion of the Israeli security establishment and in an arbitrary manner that lacks transparency. Rejections are given verbally and without explanation. The head of the Civil Administration, Brig. Gen. Ilan Paz, stated that, “There are no definitive clear criteria for examining requests for a permit.”

The Forbidden Roads Regime has been in operation for years, but the rules and regulations for its implementation have never been issued in writing. Thus, Israel frees itself of accountability and increases the arbitrariness with which it enforces the regime.

The Forbidden Roads Regime operates on the unfounded premise that every Palestinian is a security risk. Based on this premise, the Roads Regime violates the rights to freedom of movement and equality of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel has an obligation to safeguard the lives of its citizens. But this obligation does not allow it to cause such harsh, extensive, indiscriminate, and prolonged harm to the local population.

By unlawfully discriminating against Palestinians based on their national origin, the Forbidden Roads Regime is reminiscent of the apartheid system that existed in South Africa. The regime violates fundamental principles of international law that are binding on the State of Israel. B'Tselem concludes its report with a demand that the government of Israel immediately end the Forbidden Roads Regime and that it respect the right of Palestinians to move freely on all roads inside the West Bank.

 
The Forbidden Roads Regime
The Forbidden Roads Regime operates on the unfounded premise that every Palestinian is a security risk. Photo: B'Tselem

Summary of the report
The full report (Word 97)
The full report (RTF)
 
   Elderly man dies when IDF bulldozer demolishes his home  


On the night of 12 July 2004, the army demolished the home of the Khalef Allah family in Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip. Ibrahim Khalef Allah, age 72, was in the house at the time. Khalef Allah, who was unable to walk, was crushed to death under the ruins. According to B'Tselem's figures, since the beginning of the current intifada, at least twelve unarmed Palestinian civilians have been killed during the course of house demolitions. The victims include one three-year-old infant, a seven-year-old child, and a ten-year-old child.

Khalef Allah's daughter Muna, 34, told B'Tselem: “I heard a volley of bullets and saw a huge bulldozer knock down the western wall and push its way into the house. As it did, the electricity was cut off. I left the room, stood in the middle of the house and shouted to the driver of the bulldozer to stop. My father was lying on his bed... My mother came and stood alongside me. She, too, shouted at the driver: 'My husband is inside'... The bulldozer stopped. We continued to shout at the driver, begging him to stop demolishing the house... A huge bulldozer entered rapidly from the northern side of the house and began to demolish the room my father was in. At that moment, I shouted as loud as I could, 'My father is dead, my father is dead'... The second bulldozer moved back a few meters and then forward into the middle of the house and demolished what remained of it. I grabbed my mother's hand and took her outside... I saw the two bulldozers finish the demolition. It took about fifteen or twenty minutes.”

That night, IDF bulldozers demolished twenty-eight other houses in Khan Yunis. Military officials told the press that none of the houses demolished that night were occupied.

After the bulldozers left, Muna Khalef Allah returned with her two brothers to the remains of their house to search for their father. She related what happened next: “Dozens of neighbors joined in [the search]. One of them had a flashlight. Somebody started to remove the stones from my father's bedroom. After about ten minutes, I saw a bit of the mattress on which my father had been lying... The men began to lift up the stones and the rubble on the mattress, and I saw my father's body.”

 
Home of the Khalef Allah family
Home of the Khalef Allah family in Khan Yunis. Photo: B'Tselem

   
   
   
 
   Student beaten at the Beit Furik checkpoint  


On the morning of 27 July 2004, Mahmud Hanini, a twenty-three year old student and resident of Beit Dajan, arrived at the Beit Furik checkpoint. While soldiers were checking his documents, one of the soldiers ordered to him to sit to the side of the checkpoint. After an hour or so passed, another soldier aimed her weapon to him and ordered him to stop talking with another man who had been stopped and was sitting alongside him. Then a soldier ordered him to get up and stand facing the wall. Hanini, whose back hurt, went over to the soldier and asked permission to continue sitting on the ground. Hanini understood that the soldier granted his request, and sat down. When he did, the same soldier and three other soldiers began to kick him and beat him with their weapons, and tried to handcuff him. One of the soldiers used his helmet to hit Hanini in the back of his neck.

Hanini lost consciousness for a few minutes. When he came to, he found himself stretched out on the ground with his hands cuffed. The soldiers released him after several hours. Hanini was later hospitalized as a result of the injuries he sustained.

B'Tselem met Hanini at the Beit Furik checkpoint after the incident. B'Tselem informed the Military Police Investigation Unit about what had taken place and, following media coverage of the incident, an investigation was opened.

 
Mahmoud Hanini
Mahmoud Hanini. Photo: B'Tselem

   
   
   
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