-- it also restricts what crops can be grown; restrictions forced farmers like Sawafteh to forgo higher revenue-generating ones like tomatoes and cucumbers and switch to less labor intensive ones like wheat;
-- some farmers give up altogether and let their land lie fallow rather than risk economic failure or work under onerous conditions.
Family and social life are also affected. Palestinian community life is based on extended familial ties even though members don't often live in the same towns and villages. Movement restrictions and inability to get permits prevent their ability to see each other, and it's especially felt in the "seam zone," Jordan Valley and Nablus under siege.
Ni'ma 'Ali Salameh Abu Sahara from Nablus is a case in point:
-- her daughter married and moved to the Jordan Valley;
-- no one has been able to see her, not even during holidays, because "the army doesn't let us cross the Hamra checkpoint;"
-- she wasn't able to visit her first grandson and only saw him two months after his birth when her daughter visited her;
-- her daughter just had a second child by Caesarean section; Abu Sahara went to the checkpoint to get through to see her; soldiers refused to let her pass; she begged them; they still refused; Abu Sahara "went home and cried."
This story and many others like it are commonplace, and it's caused the splitting up of nuclear families. Students leave parents to be near school. Wage earners and tradesmen leave families to be close to work. The ill live in cities to be near essential medical care facilities. From the time they leave homes to whenever they try to return, they encounter problems. For most Palestinians, they're painful to impossible.
Restrictions prevent routine family gatherings as well as special ones like weddings, funerals, and caring for the sick. Palestinians once could take vacations, and a favorite spot was the northern Dead Sea area with its 25 km of coastline. No longer. The 'Ein Fascha nature reserves there (one of the most popular recreational sites) are now operated by Israel's Nature Reserves and Parks Authority for Jews only.
Movement restrictions affect all facets of daily life, including basic services and law enforcement - urban infrastructure, social services, mail, governance, rescue operations, electricity and gas, water, and locally-based security. When breakdowns occur and repairs are needed or other vital services have to be performed, district government employees get no preferential treatment crossing checkpoints to handle them. The result is long delays fixing essential public services or dealing with problems like medical emergencies.
"Fabric of life" roads for Palestinians are also affected, including the way they were built. They're on expropriated private land, inefficiently use public property, and take other Palestinian land for the Separation Wall. An example is a road Israel built between the village of Shufa (south of Tulkarm) and a-Ras, northeast of the Sal'it settlement. Israel took village lands for it - from Far'on, a-Ras and 'Izbat Shufa. To connect the two district seats, Israel seized private land, destroyed olive and citrus orchards on them, asked no permission to do it, and paid no compensation for the losses.
Israel unilaterally chooses routes for new roads, Palestinians' interests aren't considered, and injuries and losses they incur get no redress. They're also harmed in other ways. Roads often demarcate villages, they limit their ability to build and expand for their growing populations, their costs outweighs their benefits, the harm affects whole communities, and it's long-term.
Restrictions on Free Movement from the Perspective of International Law
Besides Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international humanitarian law, the UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is very clear about free movement. Its Article 12 states:
1. "Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within the territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.
I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.
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