An excursion through the West Bank is a trip to disbelief

When you witness it, you are left in disbelief; how can it be happening? But it is occurring daily; what seems to be purposeful hindrances to West Bank residents that reduce Palestinians, who have meager demands and normal needs, to total despair and deprivation.

I had already observed a power point presentation on Fragmentation of the West Bank, one of many presentations that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) displays for those interested in conditions in the Palestinian West Bank. An OCHA source told me that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed surprise with the same presentation; he hadn’t been informed of the shown and known restrictive conditions. Evidently, Tony Blair had been unaware of the separation wall that separates Palestinian communities and families, that chokes the Palestinian economy and obstructs daily exchanges between peoples, He was not sufficiently informed of a planned North South super highway for only Israelis that will divide the West bank in half, of the other highways that slice through Palestinian lands and completely bar farmers from agriculture land, of checkpoints every five miles, flying checkpoints, road barriers, berms, trenches, settler bypass roads, blocked Palestinian village roads, and travel restrictions to Jerusalem.

All of this was emphasized in another presentation by Machsom Watch’s Hanna Baraj. Machsom Watch consists of a group of women who rise at 5 a.m. daily, go to 40 checkpoints and investigate human rights violations. Ms. Baraj related horror stories; of Palestinians who cannot receive visitors, of a child who had cancer but the parents did not have permission to accompany the child to a hospital in Jerusalem, of women who cannot obtain passports or identity cards and are locked in their homes. Her exposition led to one conclusion: The entire purpose of the restrictions on freedom of movement is to make life impossible for the Palestinians. More...