Al-Nakba: Refugees Picture Gallery Haunting images of Palestinian

Al-Nakba:
Refugees Picture Gallery
Haunting images of Palestinian
refugees....

The shrinking map of Palestine

King Abdullah warned that current efforts to reach an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians mark the ‘last opportunity’ for peace

A Palestinian boy plays Saturday as Israeli soldiers patrol in a Hebron market (AP photo by Nasser Shiyoukhi)

JORDAN TIMES King urges Palestinians to meet Quartet conditions
Monarch to push for Mideast peace during visits to US, UK, Saudi Arabia, Egypt JT with agency dispatches King Abdullah on Saturday said the international community, including Arab countries, expects a Palestinian unity government to adhere to conditions set by the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators. “There’s international common ground — not just Western but also Arab and Muslim — that believes there have to be certain criteria that the new government has to accept if we’re going to move the process forward,” the King told Israeli Channel 2 television in an interview aired yesterday. “It’s not just... the international players, but also the Arab countries are also expecting the new Palestinian government to adhere to the policies set out by the Quartet [Russia, the UN, the US and the EU].” Under a deal signed between Fateh and Hamas in Mecca earlier this month, a new unity Cabinet was to be formed and committed to honour past peace agreements, but did not explicitly recognise Israel. King Abdullah also warned that current efforts to reach an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians mark the “last opportunity” for peace in the Middle East. “What I do feel, really, is the last opportunity for peace, for all of us to live in peace and harmony,” he said. “We find ourselves at this very important crossroads, in all our lives, in all our futures, whether it is Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian or Arab-Israeli.” He asked: “If we never have a two-state solution then can we ever have peace between Israelis and Arabs?” King Abdullah will push for more efforts by Washington in the Middle East peace process during a visit to the US, where he will address a joint meeting of the Congress on March 7, according to a Royal Court official. The Monarch “will articulate Arab vision of comprehensive regional peace based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative”, the official said. Senior politicians, thought leaders, media representatives and diplomats were expected to attend the meeting. King Abdullah will also address the Iraqi crisis as well as ways to end bloodshed and restore security and stability in the neighbouring country. During the several-day visit, King Abdullah was expected to hold talks with US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. His talks with administration officials will focus on the importance of the US role in encouraging Palestinians and Israelis to return to negotiations. King Abdullah will also meet with Arab American, Muslim and Jewish leaders. On his way to the US, the King will stop in the UK on Wednesday for talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. According to the Royal Court source, talks in London will follow visits to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Sunday, February 25, 2007

Five year old girl terrified to death after Israeli forces arrest her father ...& more from PNN

(Hebron) Palestine News Network

Saturday, 24 February 2007

Late last night a five year old girl died in the southern West Bank after a struggle in the hospital. The Palestinian Prisoner Society's Hebron branch issued the details on Saturday that cite the cause of her death as terror. As is a common occurrence during arrest campaigns, Israeli forces raided the family home as they slept. The soldiers were loud and violent, tearing through personal belongings, throwing furniture, shoving family members, holding them all at gunpoint. PPS reports that during arrests Israeli forces generally use jeeps or tanks, break down doors, fire tear gas and bullets, bring in dogs and beat people. The Director of PPS in Hebron, Amjad Najjar, is following the case. “The conduct of occupation soldiers is that of pirates. They engage in persecution and violate international law, human rights and religious values. These hostile operations crush people, particularly children.” The invasions frighten the toughest of adults who know they may not live through them. And it is well documented how psychologically damaging the midnight raids are for children. At the beginning of the month Israeli forces broke into the Al Tardh family home. Five and a half year old Ebtisam was terrified as soldiers screamed at her and her siblings, forcing them all outside into the cold. In front of the children, Israeli forces arrested their father. The young girl went into an apparent shock and was taken to the hospital. She never recovered. And although his daughter is dead, Ibrahim Al Tardh remains in Israeli prison, suffering himself from heart disease and in urgent need of health care.

Movement restricted for Palestinians whether from the West Bank or inside Israeli boundaries

(Qalqilia) Mustafa Sabre

Sunday, 25 February 2007

In the northwestern West Bank's Qalqilia, Israeli settlers pass the Green Line with ease. For Palestinians in villages on the Israeli side of the boundary, life is not so easy. Kafr Qasim is just south of Qalqilia and just outside of the West Bank line. It falls on the Israeli side of the Wall. To reach lands and villages on either side of the Wall, Palestinians must go through the Israeli District Coordination Office (DCO). Israeli settlers use the same route. Kafr Qasim resident, Professor Ibrahim Abu Jaber, told PNN, “Whenever I think of going to the West Bank and Qalqilia I become concerned because I know how frustratingly difficult the trip is. What is happening is flagrant and blatant discrimination.” Abu Jaber was referring to the difference in treatment between the Palestinians who still live in their original towns inside Israeli boundaries and the Israeli settlers who speed into the West Bank. “The military stops us for provocative searches and harassment, inspection, verification and more inspection, while the settlers move through our lands as they please.” While speaking with PNN on Saturday, Abu Jaber said, “One of the soldiers told me not to come to Qaqilia, that it is a city of terrorists.” He told the soldier that it is the settlers who should not be in the West Bank, nor should the soldiers or the Wall. Abu Jaber said that the soldier told him, “Death to Arabs.” He said that Israeli police inside Israeli boundaries often stop Palestinians returning from Qalqilia and search them for shopping bags, and impose a tax on purchased goods. “This is random discrimination. They don't give any reasons for this entirely irregular practice of sometimes imposing tax.” Forty one year old Mohammad Daoud from Qalqilia told PNN, “I saw a soldier apologize to Jewish settlers in a car that was stopped by saying he had thought they were Arabs. Some of us go to work inside '48, but that is because of the poverty that results from closure. We are compelled to do so only because we cannot afford otherwise.” The President of Qalqilia's Chamber of Commerce said that the Palestinians who come from inside Israeli boundaries to shop contribute greatly to the economy that struggles under the myriad practices of occupation.

Muslims and Christians join in Jerusalem: an assault on Al Aqsa is an assault on us all

(Jerusalem) Palestine News Network

Thursday, 22 February 2007

Christian and Muslim leaders gathered in East Jerusalem's Wadi Joz neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon in a show of solidarity against the Israeli destruction and takeover of the city. The head of the Islamic Movement inside the Green Line, Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, recapped events of the last two weeks including the ongoing excavation under Al Aqsa Mosque and the destruction at the Moroccans (Maghrarbeh) Gate. The General Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, and the head of Al Aqsa, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, were among the Muslim officials in attendance at this latest act of nonviolent resistance. Sheikh Salah and Chief Palestinian Justice Sheikh Taysir Tamimi have both been instructed by the occupying administration to stay out of Al Aqsa Mosque, a mandate neither respect. While Sheikh Tamimi was in the Israeli municipal court to be tried for what is being referred to as "praying without a permit" and inciting protest against Israeli destruction at the Mosque, the Archimandrite of the Greek Orthodox Church, Dr. Attallah Hanna, joined him in an move of solidarity between Muslims and Christians. Dr. Hanna was at yesterday's Wadi Joz demonstration as a part of the delegation of Christian officials condemning Israeli aggressions in Jerusalem. Dr. Hanna shouted to demonstrators, “On behalf of Christian churches in Jerusalem, on behalf of Palestinian Christians, I stand with you in the legitimate struggle to defend the holy Al Aqsa Mosque because an assault on Al Aqsa is an assault on all of us.” Sheikh Salah said that the solidarity is not only among Palestinian and Arab Christians and Muslims, but is also pouring in from the international community. Sheikh Hussein told the crowds that people of conscience, no matter where they are from, cannot remain unmoved in the face of the destruction of the heritage of Islam.

Palestinian organization activities relieve some psychological stress on children under siege

(Nablus) Palestine News Network

Sunday, 25 February 2007

The Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees works for the community, not only by providing medical services and food in times of need, but by working with children. Through its Youth Training Community Center, the UPMRC gathered a group of volunteers in the Old City this weekend. Activities focused on relieving some of the psychological strain that young people experience under occupation and the ensuing lack of certainty about the future. The younger children of the city were treated to role-playing, balloons, dancing and a parade. Some 120 boys and girls from the Zafar Masri Memorial School in Nablus' Old City participated. In their gymnasium clowns painted their faces, singers strolled through, and kids outside played sports. Parents at the event said that activities such as this are crucial to bring moments of jubilation to difficult childhoods spent in fear, living under siege, with military invasions part of daily reality. Nablus has been invaded more often than any other city during this Intifada that began in 2000. Young children know nothing else. Their reality is the near daily invasion. The UPMRC has laid plans to implement dozens of activities and days of entertainment for the children of the Nablus Governorate throughout the year.

Palestinian organization activities relieve some psychological stress on children under siege Muslims and Christians join in Jerusalem: an assault on Al Aqsa is an assault on us all Nonviolent protest focuses on repression of students at West Bank checkpoints

Traffic flowing temporarily between Bethlehem and Hebron pending Wall construction The Wall turns a few meters into several kilometers Encircled by Wall and controlled by gates, Qaliqila residents are locked in without a key

Gas station explosion prompts Ministry of Labor in Bethlehem to launch safety & inspection campaign Earthquakes hit West Bank Nablus economy on the verge of collapse as infrastructure and environment are being destroyed

Palestinian official detained at Israeli checkpoint in northern West Bank Nonviolent protest focuses on repression of students at West Bank checkpoints West Bank arrests include university student at flying checkpoint

Five year old girl terrified to death after Israeli forces arrest her father West Bank arrests include several Hebron District teenagers UNHCR report angers Israelis with accusations of racial discrimination

Palestinians in Israeli jails hunger strike in solidarity with Al Jazeera cameraman PFLP leader bouncing between Israeli civil and military courts Nablus man arrested 11 times in 10 years

Movement restricted for Palestinians whether from the West Bank or inside Israeli boundaries Israeli settlers demonstrate for new bypass road through Bethlehem Palestinian member of Knesset: Israeli government displacing 35,000 Palestinians from East Jerusalem

Gaza Strip Still Suffers Daily Power Outages (BBS News 2007-02-22)

Gaza Strip Still Suffers Daily Power Outages Thursday, February 22 2007 @ 12:14 PM EST OPT: Gaza power supply under pressure BBSNews 2007-02-22 - GAZA CITY, (IRIN) -- The Gaza Strip in the Occupied Palestinian Territories continues to suffer daily power cuts eight months after Israel bombed its only power station, leaving health services relying on expensive generators and residents without regular electricity or water. Ahmed, 14, and Amjad, 12, during a power cut in Tal Zaatar, Gaza. Image Courtesy: © Tom Spender/IRIN For the image shown above in a larger size, see Ahmed, 14, and Amjad, 12, during a power cut in Tal Zaatar, Gaza. More BBSNews images are available in BBSNews Photos. The cuts have continued despite new transformers being installed in November 2006 at the privately owned Gaza Power Generating Company (GPGC) power station. All six of the original transformers were destroyed by Israeli warplanes days after Palestinian militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier last June. "From the third week of December people have been using more electricity and supply cannot meet the demand," said Stuart Shepherd, humanitarian affairs officer in Gaza for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). New generators installed in November mean the GPGC can produce 60 megawatts (MW) of power. This, combined with 107MW from the Israel Electricity Company (IEC) and a further 17MW from Egypt, gives Gaza a capacity of 184MW - 40MW below the estimated 225MW demand. According to Shepherd, this translates into cuts of up to six hours a day that hit Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip hardest. "With the decline of law and order in Gaza, people have begun illegally tapping into the electricity supply, which puts further pressure on it," he added. The cuts have left hospitals relying on diesel generators supplied with fuel financed by foreign donors. "The cost of generators means the budgets of health organisations have increased. There are now no more generators available in Gaza and some organisations don't have them. It leads to problems in keeping drugs and vaccines, which have to be stored in refrigerated conditions," said Youssef Mousa, chairman of the Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC), which runs Al-Awda hospital in Gaza City. It costs the UHWC up to US$700 a day to fuel its generators, depending on the length of the power cut - but the European Union has stepped in, paying for fuel between last October and the end of January. This week, the EU resumed payments to ensure Al-Awda could keep functioning, Mousa said. The electricity cuts also leave many families across the Gaza Strip without a regular water supply as the water cannot be pumped to their homes, said Riyad Janina, Gaza director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group. In addition, many Gaza municipalities struggle to secure enough fuel to power electricity generators to keep pumping drinking water from wells, he added. "The situation is not as bad as it was immediately after the bombing, but most municipalities are still having problems and people still have to do without water," he said. The lack of power also left raw sewage running through the streets of some neighbourhoods of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza after a sewage collection pool overflowed. Normally, sewage is treated with oxygen and pumped into the sea - but without electricity this is not possible. "The people there were really worried, but the Palestinian Water Authority has now managed to divert excess sewage to a rainwater collection reservoir," said Janina. Last July, an independent UN human rights expert called for an inquiry into the strike on the power station. Paul Hunt, the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, said the strike had exacerbated an already critical health situation and may have been in breach of international humanitarian law, which requires warring parties to differentiate between civilian and military targets. The GPGC power station is owned by an American company and private Palestinian investors. Asked why it had attacked the power station, the Israeli military said it was targeting Palestinian terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip to ensure the return of its abducted soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit. He was abducted by Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006.

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BBSNews images are available in BBSNews Photos.

Occupation of Palestine

Photos about the struggle of the Palestinians trying to get their land back.

Last changed on 02/19/07. This topic contains 61 items

This topic has been viewed 6159 times since 07/26/05.

bulldozering trees

palestinian children in the rubble

A Palestinian family carrying what remains of their bombed house and load it into a donky cart. The house had been targeted by the Israeli helicopters.
Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2006-08-23.

Remi Kanazi's All roads lead to checkpoints...& more from IMEU

Palestinian children enjoy a day by the sea on the beach in Gaza City. (Wesam Saleh, Maan Images) The Institute for Middle East Understanding provides journalists with quick access to information about Palestine and the Palestinians, as well as expert sources, both in the U.S. and the Middle East. Need story assistance? Contact us. New to the issue? See our Background Briefings.

All roads lead to checkpoints

Remi Kanazi, IMEU

Feb 24, 2007

There may have been a period when all roads led to Rome, but for the Palestinian people, all roads lead to checkpoints. The latest checkpoint Palestinians find themselves at is not manned by Israel but rather the mediator of the "peace process," the Quartet.


Fishing for freedom in Gaza, Mohammed Omer, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (Feb 23, 2007)
Jerusalem: The politics of urban planning, Philippe Rekacewicz and Dominique Vidal, Le Monde diplomatique (Feb 22, 2007)
Mecca opens the way for Europe, Henry Siegman, International Herald Tribune (Feb 21, 2007)
The peace process industry, Michael F. Brown, Counterpunch (Feb 20, 2007)
The UN must step in, Dina Ezzat, Al-Ahram Weekly (Feb 18, 2007)
Unity gov't faces daunting challenges, Daoud Kuttab, The Daily Star (Feb 17, 2007)
Final status in a new era, Jerome Segal, Haaretz (Feb 16, 2007)
Palestinian government news update, IMEU (Feb 16, 2007)
Seeking equal rights in Israel, Rima Merriman, IMEU (Feb 15, 2007)

The politics of urban planning Le Monde diplomatique Europe's role after Mecca International Herald Tribune A mother's resistance Ofri Ilani, Haaretz

European states will send money to new gov't
Reuters (Feb 23, 2007)

Israel clashes with Bil'in protest
Al Jazeera (Feb 23, 2007)

Israel clashes with Bil'in protest

At least four demonstrators were injured on Friday in the village of Bil'in [Al Jazeera] Israeli troops have clashed with Palestinian and international protesters demonstrating against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bil'in. At least four people have been injured in the clashes on Friday, Al Jazeera's correspondent at the scene, Jacky Rowland, said. The demonstrations mark the two year anniversary of weekly protests held in the village to protest against Israel's separation barrier that annexes more than 60 per cent of the village's land. Israeli troops used water canons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, Rowland reported. Activists armed with slingshots fired rocks at Israeli forces. Barrier protested "Israel troops were still firing teargas at them, even as they went up the hill in retreat" Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera correspondent Hundreds of Palestinians showed up to participate in the protest, including citizens of neighbouring villages. They were joined by dozens of foreigners and Israelis from Israeli peace movements. Rowland said Israeli soldiers came over to the Palestinian side of the barrier, firing tear gas and chasing demonstrators over a hill. She said: "Israel troops were still firing teargas at them, even as they went up the hill in retreat." A group of protesters continued to hold a sit-in at the site. Over its two years of protest, Bil'in has become a symbol to Palestinians for its spirit of constant defiance. The barrier cuts through the landscape – and has robbed Palestinians of land [Al Jazeera] Mustafa Barghouti, member of parliament, told Al Jazeera at the protest: "First of all, it has created a very important symbol and model of non-violent, peaceful resistance." 'Fortifying colonialism' Barghouti said Bil'in has attracted international attention to Israel's "apartheid system" and sends a message to Israel that Palestinians would not accept it. He said the separation barrier was "fortifying colonialism and occupation" and has "destroyed Palestinian health infrastructure, economic and education systems". The Israelis call the barrier a security fence but Palestinians refer to it as the Apartheid Wall. It's been about five years since Israel began building the massive barrier, which the International Court of Justice has since ruled is against international law. The protests in Bil'in began when Israeli army bulldozers moved in. Victims of 'separation' Suliman Yassin has been farming the land around Bil'in for more than 25 years. It provided a living for his extended family. Three years ago, the Israeli army confiscated most of his farmland and uprooted his olive trees, to make way for the separation barrier. Yassin said: "When they uprooted the trees that Thursday, I was taken to the hospital, I couldn't stand it any more. I took a knife, I was about to stab the man driving the bulldozer. We spent a fortune on this land and those trees." Now Suliman Yassin can only look at his land through barbed wire. He says he's staying – he's too old to move now. But most of Suliman's children have left, and he doesn’t expect them to come back.

Abbas meets with Merkel in Berlin
Maan News (Feb 23, 2007)

Carter says book's critics should see territories
The Washington Post (Feb 23, 2007)

Carter Says Book's Critics Should See Territories

Associated Press
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A02

ATLANTA, Feb. 22 -- Former president Jimmy Carter suggested Thursday that critics of his book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should visit the occupied territories to see for themselves whether his account is on target.

Carter, 82, spoke at Emory University, where he is a professor. More than 600 Emory students and staff members attended his lecture on the book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid." The book has been attacked as biased against Israel.

He said he realized that the book's title, alluding to South Africa's former system of racial division, would cause criticism. He said that Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, icons of the freedom struggle in South Africa, have seen the conditions of the occupied land and have "used the same language" to describe the situation as he did in the book.

"The title makes it clear the book is about conditions and events in the Palestinian territories and not in Israel and the text makes it clear the forced segregation and domination of Arabs by Israelis is not based on race," Carter said.

Instead, he said the conditions stem from the desire of some Israelis to acquire choice land -- hilltop properties, farmland and sites controlling water access -- in the occupied territories.

He invited his audience, some of whom protested against his book this week, to visit the occupied areas to see for themselves.

"Few people on Earth have had a greater opportunity than I have to understand the complex relationship from personal observation," said Carter, whose efforts produced the Camp David accords in 1978 that led to a treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Israelis, he said, can reduce threats against their country by withdrawing the occupation forces.

"I believe what I advocate in this book -- whether you agree or disagree -- is the best chance for the future," Carter said.

The tragedy of Condoleezza Rice
Patrick Seale, Dar Al Hayat (Feb 23, 2007)

Watching the checkpoints
Jonathan Cook, Counterpunch (Feb 23, 2007)

Arab foreign ministers interested in relations with Israel
Agence France Presse (Feb 23, 2007)

Indonesia invites Hamas, Western envoys for talks
Reuters (Feb 23, 2007)

Palestinian fisherman report harassment by Israeli army
Ynet News (Feb 23, 2007)

Palestinian fishermen off Rafah coast Photo: AP

Palestinian fishermen say IDF arrests, abuses them

Fishermen say navy vessels chase their boats, make them swim over naked for interrogation, then bring them back to sea where they have to swim back to their boats. IDF: Boats sailing in forbidden area, suspected of arms smuggling
Ali Waked

Jonathan Cook's Apartheid looks like this

Apartheid looks like this
Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 23 February 2007

An Israeli soldier prevents Palestinians from passing Beit Iba checkpoint, during a demonstration against Israeli checkpoints near the West Bank city of Nablus, 14 February 2007. (MaanImages/Rami Swidan)

The scene: a military checkpoint deep in Palestinian territory in the West Bank. A tall, thin elderly man, walking stick in hand, makes a detour past the line of Palestinians, many of them young men, waiting obediently behind concrete barriers for permission from an Israeli soldier to leave one Palestinian area, the city of Nablus, to enter another Palestinian area, the neighbouring village of Huwara. The long queue is moving slowly, the soldier taking his time to check each person's papers.

The old man heads off purposefully down a parallel but empty lane reserved for vehicle inspections. A young soldier controlling the human traffic spots him and orders him back in line. The old man stops, fixes the soldier with a stare and refuses. The soldier looks startled, and uncomfortable at the unexpected show of defiance. He tells the old man more gently to go back to the queue. The old man stands his ground. After a few tense moments, the soldier relents and the old man passes.

Is the confrontation revealing of the soldier's humanity? That is not the way it looks -- or feels -- to the young Palestinians penned in behind the concrete barriers. They can only watch the scene in silence. None would dare to address the soldier in the manner the old man did -- or take his side had the Israeli been of a different disposition. An old man is unlikely to be detained or beaten at a checkpoint. Who, after all, would believe he attacked or threatened a soldier, or resisted arrest, or was carrying a weapon? But the young men know their own injuries or arrests would barely merit a line in Israels newspapers, let alone an investigation.

And so, the checkpoints have made potential warriors of Palestine's grandfathers at the price of emasculating their sons and grandsons.

I observed this small indignity -- such humiliations are now a staple of life for any Palestinian who needs to move around the West Bank -- during a shift with Machsom Watch. The grassroots organisation founded by Israeli women in 2001 monitors the behaviour of soldiers at a few dozen of the more accessible checkpoints (machsom in Hebrew).

The checkpoints came to dominate Palestinian life in the West Bank (and, before the disengagement, in Gaza too) long before the outbreak of the second intifada in late 2000, and even before the first Palestinian suicide bombings. They were Israel's response to the Oslo accords, which created a Palestinian Authority to govern limited areas of the occupied territories. Israel began restricting Palestinians allowed to work in Israel to those issued with exit permits; a system enforced through a growing network of military roadblocks. Soon the checkpoints were also restricting movement inside the occupied territories, ostensibly to protect the Jewish settlements built in occupied territory.

By late last year, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 528 checkpoints and roadblocks were recorded in the West Bank, choking its roads every few miles. Israel's daily Haaretz newspaper puts the figure even higher: in January there were 75 permanently manned checkpoints, some 150 mobile checkpoints, and more than 400 places where roads have been blocked by obstacles. All these restrictions on movement for a place that is, according to the CIA's World Factbook, no larger than the small US state of Colorado.

At the checkpoints, food spoils, patients die, and children are prevented from reaching their schools

As a result, moving goods and people from one place to the next in the West Bank has become a nightmare of logistics and costly delays. At the checkpoints, food spoils, patients die, and children are prevented from reaching their schools. The World Bank blames the checkpoints and roadblocks for strangling the Palestinian economy.

Embarrassed by recent publicity about the burgeoning number of checkpoints, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, promised the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in December that there would be an easing of travel restrictions in the West Bank -- to little effect, according to reports in the Israeli media. Although the army announced last month that 44 earth barriers had been removed in fulfilment of Olmerts pledge, it later emerged that none of the roadblocks had actually been there in the first place.

Contrary to the impression of most observers, the great majority of the checkpoints are not even near the Green Line, Israels internationally recognised border until it occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. Some are so deep inside Palestinian territory that the army refuses to allow Machsom Watch to visit them. There, the women say, no one knows what abuses are being perpetrated unseen on Palestinians.

But at Huwara checkpoint, where the old man refused to submit, the soldiers know that most of the time they are being watched by fellow Israelis and that their behaviour is being recorded in monthly logs. Machsom Watch has a history of publishing embarrassing photographs and videos of the soldiers' actions. It showed, for example, a videotape in 2004 of a young Palestinian man being forced to play his violin at Beit Iba checkpoint, a story that gained worldwide attention because it echoed the indignities suffered by Jews at the hands of the Nazis.

Machsom Watch has about 500 members, reportedly including Olmert's leftwing daughter, Dana. But only about 200 actively take part in checkpoint duties, an experience that has left many outspoken in denouncing the occupation. The organisation is widely seen by the Israeli public as extremist, with pro-Israel groups accusing the women of "demonising" Israel.

It is the kind of criticism painfully familiar to Nomi Lalo, from Kfar Sava. A veteran of Machsom Watch, she is the mother of three children, two of whom have already served in the army while the youngest, aged 17, is due to join up later this year. "He has been more exposed to my experiences in Machsom Watch and has some sympathy with my point of view," she says. "But my oldest son has been very hostile about my activities. It has caused a lot of tension in the family."

Most of the women do shifts at a single checkpoint, but I join Nomi on "mobile" duty in the central region, moving between the dozens of checkpoints west of Nablus.

She wants to start by showing me the separate road system in the West Bank, with unrestricted and high-quality roads set aside for Jewish settlers living illegally in occupied territory while Palestinians are forced to make difficult and lengthy journeys over hills and through valleys on what are often little more than dirt tracks.

Machsom Watch calls this "apartheid", a judgment shared by the liberal daily Haaretz newspaper, which recently wrote an editorial that Israeli parents ought to "be very worried about their country sending their sons and daughters on an apartheid mission: to restrict Palestinian mobility within the occupied territory in order to enable Jews to move freely."

A trip that should take little more than a quarter of an hour is now all but impossible for most Palestinians

We leave the small Palestinian town of Azzoun, close by the city of Qalqilya, and head directly north towards another city, Tulkarm. A trip that should take little more than a quarter of an hour is now all but impossible for most Palestinians.

"This road is virtually empty, even though it is the main route between two of the West Banks largest cities," Nomi points out. "That is because most Palestinians cannot get the permits they need to use these roads. Without a permit they can't get through the checkpoints, so either they stay in their villages or they have to seek circuitous and dangerous routes off the main roads."

We soon reach one of the checkpoints Nomi is talking about. At Aras, two soldiers sit in a small concrete bunker in the centre of the main junction between Tulkarm and Nablus. The bored soldiers are killing time waiting for the next car and the driver whose papers they will need to inspect.

A young Palestinian man, in woollen cap to protect him from the cold, stands by a telegraph post close by the junction. Bilal, aged 26, has been "detained" at the same spot for three hours by the soldiers. Nervously he tells us that he is trying to reach his ill father in hospital in Tulkarm. Nomi looks unconvinced and, after a talk with the soldiers and calls on her mobile phone to their commanders, she has a clearer picture.

"He has been working illegally in Israel and they have caught him trying to get back to his home in the West Bank. The soldiers are holding him here to punish him. They could imprison him but, given the dire state of the Palestinian economy, the Israeli prisons would soon be overflowing with jobseekers. So holding him here all day is a way of making him suffer. Its illegal but, unless someone from Machsom Watch turns up, who will ever know?"

"When they are being helpful, I remind myself their primary motive is to protect the occupations image"

Is it not good that the military commanders are willing to talk to her? "They know we can present their activities in the West Bank in a very harsh light and so they cooperate. They dont want bad publicity. I never forget that when I am speaking to them. When they are being helpful, I remind myself their primary motive is to protect the occupations image."

Nomi sees proof in cases like Bilal's that the checkpoints and Israel's steel and concrete barrier in the West Bank -- or fence, as she calls it -- are not working in the way Israel claims. "First, the fence is built on Palestinian land, not on the Green Line, and it cuts Palestinians off from their farmland and their chances of employment. It forces them to try to get into Israel to work. It is self-defeating.

"And second, thousands of Palestinians like Bilal reach Israel from the West Bank each day in search of work. Any one of them could be a suicide bomber. The fence simply isn't effective in terms of stopping them. If Palestinians who are determined enough to work in Israel can avoid the checkpoints, those who want to attack Israel can certainly avoid them. No one straps a bomb on and marches up to a checkpoint. It is ordinary Palestinians who suffer instead."

The other day, says Nomi, she found a professor of English from Bir Zeit University held at this checkpoint, just like Bilal. He had tried to sneak out of Tulkarm during a curfew to teach a class at the university near the city of Ramallah, some 40km south of here. Nomi's intervention eventually got him released. "He was sent back to Tulkarm. He thanked me profusely, but really what did we do for him or his students? We certainly didn't get him to the university."

After Nomi's round of calls, Bilal is called over by one of the soldiers. Wagging his finger reprovingly, the soldier lectures Bilal for several minutes before sending him on his way with a dismissive wave of the hand. Another small indignity.

As we leave, Nomi receives a call from a Machsom Watch group at Jitt checkpoint, a few miles away. The team of women say that, when they turned up to begin their shift, the soldiers punished the Palestinians by shutting the checkpoint. The women are panicking because a tailback of cars -- mainly taxis and trucks driven by Palestinians with special permits -- is building. After some discussion with Nomi, it is decided that the women should leave.

We head uphill to another checkpoint, some 500 metres from Aras, guarding the entrance to Jabara, a village whose educated population include many teachers and school inspectors. Today, however, the villagers are among several thousand Palestinians living in a legal twilight zone, trapped on the Israeli side of the wall. Cut off from the rest of the West Bank, the villagers are not allowed to receive guests and need special permits to reach the schools where they work. (An additional quarter of a million Palestinians are sealed off from both Israel and the West Bank in their own ghettoes.)

"Children who have married out of Jabara are not even allowed to visit their parents here," says Nomi. "Family life has been torn apart, with people unable to attend funerals and weddings. I cannot imagine what it is like for them. The Supreme Court has demanded the fence be moved but the state says it does not have the money for the time being to make the changes."

Jabara's children have a checkpoint named after them which they have to pass through each day to reach their schools nearby in the West Bank.

Jabara's children have a checkpoint named after them which they have to pass through each day to reach their schools nearby in the West Bank.

At the far end of Jabara we have to pass through a locked gate to leave the village. There we are greeted by yet another checkpoint, this one closer to the Green Line on a road the settlers use to reach Israel. It is one of a growing number that look suspiciously like border crossings, even though they are not on the Green Line, with special booths and lanes for the soldiers to inspect vehicles.

The soldiers see our yellow number plate, distinguishing us from the green plates of the Palestinians, and wave us through. Nomi is using a settlers' map she bought from a petrol station inside Israel to navigate our way to the next checkpoint, Anabta, close by an isolated settlement called Enav.

Although this was once a busy main road, the checkpoint is empty and the soldiers mill around with nothing to do. An old Palestinian man wearing the black and white keffiyah (head scarf) popularised by Yasser Arafat approaches them selling socks. There are no detained Palestinians, so we move on.

Nomi is as skeptical of claims she hears in the Israeli media about the checkpoints foiling suicide attacks as she is about the army's claims that they have been removing the roadblocks. "I spend all day monitoring a checkpoint and come home in the evening, turn on the TV and hear that four suicide bombers were caught at the checkpoint where I have been working. It happens just too often. I stopped believing the army a long time ago."

An Israeli soldier arrests a Palestinian Muslim worshipper while he was going to pray in Jerusalem at Al-Aqsa mosque on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan. Israeli soldiers try to prevent worshippers from entering Jerusalem at the main checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, 20 October 2006. (MaanImages/Fadi Arouri)

We arrive at another settlement, comprising a couple of dozen Jewish families, called Shavei Shomron. It is located next to Road 60, once the main route between Nablus and the most northernly Palestinian city, Jenin. Today the road is empty as it leads nowhere; it has been blocked by the army, supposedly to protect Shomron.

"Palestinians have to drive for hours across country to reach Jenin just because a handful of settlers want to live here by the main road," observes Nomi.

A short distance away, also on Road 60, is one of the larger and busier checkpoints: Beit Iba, the site where the Palestinian was forced to play his violin. A few kilometres west of Nablus, the checkpoint has been built in the most unlikely of places, a working quarry that has covered the area in a fine white dust. "I look at this place and think the army at least has a sense of humour," Nomi says.

Yellow Palestinian taxis are waiting at one end of the quarry to pick up Palestinians allowed to leave Nablus on foot through the checkpoint. At the vehicle inspection point, a donkey and cart stacked so high with boxes of medicines that they look permanently on the verge of tipping over is being checked alongside ambulances and trucks.

Close by is the familiar corridor of metal gates, turnstiles and concrete barriers through which Palestinians must pass one at a time to be inspected. On a battered table, a young man is emptying the contents of his small suitcase, presumably after a stay in Nablus. He is made to hold up his packed underwear in front of the soldiers and the Palestinian onlookers. Another small indignity.

Here at least the Palestinians wait under a metal awning that protects from the sun and rain. "The roof and the table are our doing," says Nomi. "Before the Palestinians had to empty their bags on to the ground."

Machsom Watch is also responsible for a small Portakabin office nearby, up a narrow flight of concrete steps, with the ostentatious sign "Humanitarian Post" by the door. "After we complained about women with babies being made to wait for hours in line, the army put up this cabin with baby changing facilities, diapers and formula milk. Then they invited the media to come and film it."

The experiment was short-lived apparently. After two weeks the army claimed the Palestinians were not using the post and removed the facilities. I go up and take a look. It's entirely bare: just four walls and a very dusty basin.

How effective does she feel Machsom Watch is? Does it really help the Palestinians or merely add a veneer of legitimacy to the checkpoints by suggesting, like the humanitarian post, that Israel cares about its occupied subjects?

How effective does she feel Machsom Watch is? Does it really help the Palestinians or merely add a veneer of legitimacy to the checkpoints by suggesting, like the humanitarian post, that Israel cares about its occupied subjects? It is, Nomi admits, a question that troubles her a great deal.

"It's a dilemma. The Palestinians here used to have to queue under the sun without shelter or water. Now that we have got them a roof, maybe we have made the occupation look a little more humane, a little more acceptable. There are some women who argue we should only watch, and not interfere, even if we see Palestinians being abused or beaten."

Which happens, as Machsom Watch's monthly reports document in detail. Even the Israeli media is starting to report uncomfortably about the soldier's behaviour, from assaults to soldiers urinating in front of religious women.

At Beit Iba in October, says Nomi, a Palestinian youngster was badly beaten by Israeli soldiers after he panicked in the queue and shinned up a pole shouting that he couldn't breathe. Haaretz later reported that the soldiers beat him with their rifle butts and smashed his glasses. He was then thrown in a detention cell at the checkpoint.

And in November, Haitem Yassin, aged 25, made the mistake of arguing with a soldier at a small checkpoint near Beit Iba called Asira al-Shamalia. He was upset when the soldiers forced the religious women he was sharing a taxi with to pat their bodies as a security measure. According to Amira Hass, a veteran Israeli reporter, Yassin was then shoved by one of the soldiers and pushed back. In the ensuing scuffle, Yassin was shot in the stomach. He was then handcuffed and beaten with rifle butts while other soldiers blocked an ambulance from coming to his aid. Yassin remained unconscious for several days.

We leave Beit Iba and within a few minutes we are at another roadblock, at Jitt. This is where the soldiers shut the checkpoint to traffic when the Machsom Watch team showed up earlier. Nomi wants to talk to them. We park some distance away, behind the queue of Palestinian cars, and she walks towards them.

There is a brief discussion and she is back. Meanwhile, one of the soldiers takes out a megaphone and calls to the taxi driver at the front of the queue. He is told to leave his car at the wait sign and approach the checkpoint 100 metres away on foot. "They are not happy. Now they are punishing the drivers because I have turned up. Its exactly the same response as this morning." Nomi decides Machsom Watch should retreat again. We leave as the queue of cars starts to build up.

The notorious Huwara checkpoint, guarding the main road to Nablus from the south, is our next destination. Early in the intifada, there were regular stories of soldiers abusing Palestinians here. Today, Machsom Watch has an almost permanent presence here, as do army officers concerned about bad publicity.

It is a surreal scene. We are deep in the West Bank, with Palestinians everywhere, but two young Jews -- sporting a hippy look fashionable among the more extreme religious settlers -- are lounging by the side of the road waiting for a lift to take them to one of the more militant settlements that encircle Nablus. A soldier, there to protect them, stands chatting.

"There used to be a taxi rank here waiting for Palestinians as they came through the checkpoint," says Nomi, "but it has been moved much further away so the settlers have a safer pickup point. The convenience of the settlers means that each day thousands of Palestinians, including pregnant women and the disabled, must walk more than an extra hundred yards to reach the taxis."

They argue in Hebrew for a few minutes before he apologises, saying he mistook me for a Palestinian

As I am photographing the checkpoint, a soldier wearing red-brown boots -- the sign of a paratrooper, according to Nomi -- confronts me, warning that he will confiscate my camera. Nomi knows her, and my, rights and asks him by what authority he is making such a threat. They argue in Hebrew for a few minutes before he apologises, saying he mistook me for a Palestinian. "Are only Palestinians not allowed to photograph the checkpoints?" Nomi scolds him, adding as an afterthought: "Didn't you hear that modern mobile phones have cameras? How can you stop a checkpoint being photographed?"

The pleasant face of Huwara is Micha, an officer from the District Coordination Office who oversees the soldiers. When he shows up in his car, Nomi engages him in conversation. Micha tells us that yesterday a teenager was stopped at the checkpoint carrying a knife and bomb-making equipment. Nomi scoffs, much to Micha's annoyance.

"Why is it always teenagers being stopped at the checkpoints?" she asks him. "You know as well as I do that the Shin Bet [Israel's domestic security service] puts these youngsters up to it to justify the checkpoints' existence. Why would anyone leave Nablus with a knife and bring it to Huwara checkpoint? For God's sake, you can buy swords on the other side of the checkpoint, in Huwara village."

We leave Huwara and go deeper into the West Bank, along a "sterile road" -- army parlance for one the Palestinians cannot use -- that today services settlers reaching Elon Moreh and Itimar. Once Palestinians travelled the road to the village of Beit Furik but not anymore. "Israel does not put up signs telling you that two road systems exist here. Instead it is the responsibility of Palestinians to know that they cannot drive on this road. Any that make a mistake are arrested."

Southeast of Nablus we pass the village of Beit Furik itself, the entrance to which has a large metal gate that can be lock by the army at will. A short distance on and we reach Beit Furik checkpoint and beyond it, tantalisingly in view, the grey cinderblock homes of the city of Nablus.

"They know that these checkpoints violate international law and that they are complict in war crimes. Many of the soldiers are scared of being photographed"

Again, when I try to take a photo, a soldier storms towards me barely concealing his anger. Nomi remonstrates with him, but he is in a foul mood. Away from him, she confides: "They know that these checkpoints violate international law and that they are complict in war crimes. Many of the soldiers are scared of being photographed."

Faced with the hostile soldier, we soon abandon Beit Furik and head back to Huwara. Less than a minute on from Huwara (Nomi makes me check my watch), we have hit another checkpoint: Yitzhar. A snarl-up of taxis, trucks and a few private cars is blocking the Palestinian inspection lane. We overtake the queue in a separate lane reserved for cars with yellow plates (settlers) and reach the other side of the checkpoint.

There we find a taxi driver waiting by the side of the road next to his yellow cab. Faek has been there for 90 minutes after an Israeli policeman confiscated both his ID and his driving licence, and then disappeared with them. Did Faek get the name of the policeman? No, he replies. "Of course not," admits Nomi. "What Palestinian would risk asking an Israeli official for his name?"

Nomi makes some more calls and is told that Faek can come to the police station in the nearby settlement of Ariel to collect his papers. But, in truth, Faek is trapped. He cannot get through the checkpoints separating him from Ariel without his ID card. And even if he could find a tortuous route around the checkpoints, he could still be arrested for not having a licence and issued a fine of a few hundred shekels, a small sum for Israelis but one he would struggle to pay. So quietly he carries on waiting in the hope that the policeman will return.

Nomi is not hopeful. "It is illegal to take his papers without giving him a receipt but this kind of thing happens all the time. What can the Palestinians do? They dare not argue. It's the Wild West out here."

Some time later, as the sun lowers in the sky and a chill wind picks up, Faek is still waiting. Nomi's shift is coming to an end and we must head back to Israel. She promises to continue putting pressure by phone on the police to return his documents. Nearly two hours later, as I arrive home, Faek unexpectedly calls, saying he has finally got his papers back. But he is still not happy: he has been issued with a fine of 500 shekels ($115) by the police. Nomi's phone is busy, he says. Can I help get the fine reduced?


Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His book, Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State, is published by Pluto Press.


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