Israelis Consider New Limits on West Bank Palestinians
The Israeli Army is stringing barbed wire around this city as part of what aid workers fear are sweeping new restrictions that will further squeeze the Palestinians' already crippled economy and perhaps stoke more violence.

The barbed wire, evidently intended to prevent Palestinian attacks, blocks what used to be a way to sneak in and out of Ramallah without passing checkpoints. It is likely only to increase the frustration at the nearby Kalandia checkpoint, the only approved way to and from Jerusalem. The checkpoint is already the source of deep Palestinian frustration and recently seems to have become more permanent with the addition of various concrete blocks to channel traffic.

On different days in the last week, hundreds of Palestinians — old women in head scarves carrying grocery bags, young girls in school uniforms, businessmen talking on cellphones — plodded both ways along a fenced-in corridor after waiting in line to present their papers to Israeli soldiers hunkered behind sandbags.

Clusters of taxis wait at each end. The roughly 10-mile commute between cities now takes three taxis and sometimes two hours or more.

Things may get even more difficult.

International aid officials said the Israeli Army outlined at a meeting on May 7 a plan to create eight zones in the West Bank, around each of its major cities. Palestinians needing to travel would apply for a special permit to enter or leave a zone, and the permits, to be renewed monthly, would be valid only from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., said several members of a committee of donor nations who attended the meeting.

The Israeli plan, international aid officials said, would encircle the eight major cities of the West Bank and their outlying villages: Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Ramallah, Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron.

"All of us realize the Israelis have very legitimate security fears and concerns," said Nigel Roberts, the World Bank representative who attended the meeting. "But it is something of a dilemma. The closures have already had a devastating effect on the economy, and this will contribute to the impoverishment of the Palestinians and all the negative consequences that go with that."

If put into effect the plan would amount to a substantial tightening of the existing Israeli policy. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in proposals outlined in recent weeks, has also talked of creating buffer zones and even a wall dividing the West Bank and Israel, similar to the fencing off of the Gaza Strip.

The new plan would appear to go further, isolating sections of the West Bank from one another.

If the restrictions outlined are carried out, people who were at the meeting said, trucks would not be permitted to cross from zone to zone. Instead, goods would have to be unloaded at a transfer point, then loaded back onto another, local truck. The system, called "back to back," is already in use in the Gaza Strip.

For international aid agencies that move food, medicine or construction materials, this would mean a tremendous increase in workers, costs and time spent in transport.

Further, those who were briefed say, no one with Palestinian papers would be permitted inside Israel. The Israelis are defining this as including East Jerusalem, a largely Palestinian area where many aid agencies have their headquarters, employing Palestinians from Ramallah and nearby areas who would no longer be able to go to work. Nor would Palestinians with Israeli identification papers — like most Arab residents of East Jerusalem — be permitted to cross into the West Bank.

On a recent afternoon, Hassan Shibly, a 50-year-old engineering professor at Bir Zeit University, was on his way home to Jerusalem. He has just been offered a chance to run the master's degree program in his department. But, as a Jerusalem resident he will no longer be able to travel to work at the university.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/24/international/middleeast/24MIDE.html