The Israelis have many ways to make the West Bank unlivable for Palestinians. From Gideon Levy at Haaretz at archive.is:
An Israeli forces vehicle blocks the road as a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance arrives during a raid the al-Faraa refugee camp near Tubas city in the West Bank, on Saturday.Credit: Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP
Three and a half hours. Three and a half hours from Jenin to Tul Karm. In three and a half hours you can fly to Rome, or drive to Eilat. But in the occupied West Bank today you’re barely able to drive between two nearby cities.
That’s the time it took us this week to travel from Jenin to Tul Karm, 35 kilometers. At the end of every Palestinian road on the West Bank there is a locked iron gate since the war in Gaza started. Waze instructs you to travel on these roads, but even this clever app doesn’t know there’s a locked gate at the end of every one.
If there isn’t a locked gate, there’s a “breathing” roadblock. If there isn’t a breathing roadblock, there’s a strangling roadblock. Near the Ottoman railway station in Sebastia, reserve soldiers stop Palestinians from taking even that remote gravel path. Near Shavei Shomron, soldiers permit traveling from south to north, but not in the opposite direction. Why? Because.
