This article was originally published by Haaretz and is republished with permission. The article accompanying the list of travel prohibitions was translated from the Hebrew version by Mark Marshall as it was unavailable from Haaretz.

Palestinians crossing the Huwara checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Nablus. (Rami Swidan, Maan Images)

The daily lives of Palestinians are dictated by a complex array of travel restrictions, checkpoints, barriers, fences and iron gates, border crossing-points controlled by Israel, a network of roads barred to Palestinian drivers and the need to apply to an unwieldy Civil Administration bureaucracy to receive travel permits.

Travel prohibitions and roadblocks have diminished the physical space that remains at the disposal of Palestinians, divided the West Bank into enclaves surrounded by a continuity of settlements, and lengthened the distance between every district, village and city.

The barriers ensure that Palestinian traffic will move further away from the central routes that mainly serve settlers and other Israelis; it takes place mainly on narrow roads between villages. Some central routes, and roads that lead to settlements are forbidden to Palestinian traffic (they are labeled "sterile" by the army). To many others - that serve the settlers and other Israelis - access is impossible because of the obstacles, even if there is no explicit ban on Palestinian drivers. Palestinian traffic is channeled to several bottlenecks — giant checkpoints between districts — where they are inspected, delayed and at times turned back.

The sweeping blow to freedom of movement began in January 1991, with the cancellation of the "general exit permit" that the army gave the Palestinians at the beginning of the 1970s, which allowed them to move freely between Gaza and the West Bank and within Israel. As of January 1991, movement between Gaza and the West Bank and the other way around and within Israel was allowed only on the basis of individual permits.

Before the cancellation, all Palestinians enjoyed the right of freedom of movement in the Occupied Territories and in Israel, apart from a few categories that required special permission - those who were barred for security reasons or by the police. The situation was reversed in 1991: freedom of movement was denied to all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, except for a few categories determined by the Israeli security authorities (such as: Palestinian VIPs, collaborators, merchants, workers, employees of the Palestinian Authority and international organizations, and humanitarian cases). The categories and the number of people who received individual permits have been constantly changing since then, but the principle remains the same - it is the policy of closure.

Related stories Implement which law? New hope for consensus What Hamas wants Emily Jacir: Speaking through art What is Israel's separation wall or barrier?

Checkpoints have existed since the beginning of the occupation. Before the general exit permit was cancelled the checkpoints were intended mainly for the purposes of inspection, tracking and arrest of people by the General Security Service and the police. After 1991, an additional function was assigned to the checkpoints near the Green Line - enforcement of the closure. For that purpose a security fence was erected around Gaza. After the beginning of the implementation of the Oslo Accords in 1994, military positions and checkpoints marked the "border" between Areas A and B (which were transferred to the civil and police control of the Palestinian Authority) and Area C (which remained under Israeli security and civil control) and the settlements.

With the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000, the number of checkpoints grew and they were intended to prevent and to reduce the passage of Palestinians into Area C (about 60% of the area of the West Bank) and to the nearby settlements. That, for example, is the role of the checkpoints in the Jordan Valley to the present day, which prevent the entry of Palestinians to about a third of the territory of the West Bank. To the permanent and mobile checkpoints were added hundreds of unmanned physical barriers.

The policy of closure was expanded, then, to the interior of the territory of the West Bank in conformity with the Israeli assumption that Area C was "Israel" as long as it was not deemed otherwise in a final-status agreement. That is to say: from 1991 to 1994 the closure policy meant separation between Gaza and the West Bank and monitoring and filtering the entry to Israel. Afterwards the foundations were laid for potential separation within the West Bank - between the Palestinian Areas A that were crisscrossed by Area C. That separation was implemented after 2000.

Requests for permits to travel within Israel, from Gaza to the West Bank and the other way around and within the West Bank are submitted to the Civil Administration. The requests are subject to the mercy of the convoluted bureaucracy, interference by the GSS, the tradition of protracted and dragged-out delay, and especially - lack of transparency in the process of determining the criteria and for denying requests. The difficulty in receiving permits, the checkpoints and the obstacles on the roads, the long routes, the wastage of time and the humiliation involved in the process of getting a permit to visit a family member deter many people, who prefer to forego traveling within the West Bank. And this is clearly reflected in its empty roads.

---

She wanted to go from the West Bank to a funeral in Gaza. The army suggested: go through Jordan.

AN is a native of Gaza who is married to a resident of Qalqilya. On 13 January her father died in Gaza, and she wanted to return to Gaza to participate in the funeral. On 15 January she submitted an application through the Coordination and Liaison Office (CLO) in Qalqilya for a permit to enter Israel so she could go to Gaza. On 16 January the soldiers at the CLO orally rejected her request.

AN turned to "Hamoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual," which in turn appealed to the Population Registry Department in the Office of the IDF Legal Advisor in the West Bank. The reply it received the next day was that "there is no record of any such request being submitted to the CLO prior the application to our office." AN's husband submitted a new application in her name to the CLO. But according to him it was reported from the Qalqilya CLO that the application was rejected.

A female officer in the Legal Advisor's office told a representative of Hamoked that AN's previous application, to enter Gaza via Israel in October, had been rejected. The officer suggested that she travel via Jordan. Hamoked made clear that this was neither logical nor possible, and that it was expecting a reply from the Legal Advisor by Thursday 18 January, otherwise it would appeal to the High Court of Justice. On Wednesday afternoon, 17 January, Haaretz contacted a spokesperson of the Civil Administration, who explained that the CLO has never rejected the application, and that the permit was issued and would be given to AN on Thursday morning.

---

All the promises to relax restrictions in the West Bank have obscured the true picture. A few roadblocks have been removed, but the following prohibitions have remained in place. (This information was gathered by Haaretz, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Machsom Watch)

Standing prohibitions

* Palestinians from the Gaza Strip are forbidden to stay in the West Bank.

* Palestinians are forbidden to enter East Jerusalem.

* West Bank Palestinians are forbidden to enter the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing.

* Palestinians are forbidden to enter the Jordan Valley.

* Palestinians are forbidden to enter villages, lands, towns and neighborhoods along the "seam line" between the separation fence and the Green Line (some 10 percent of the West Bank).

* Palestinians who are not residents of the villages Beit Furik and Beit Dajan in the Nablus area, and Ramadin, south of Hebron, are forbidden entry.

* Palestinians are forbidden to enter the settlements' area (even if their lands are inside the settlements' built area).

* Palestinians are forbidden to enter Nablus in a vehicle.

* Palestinian residents of Jerusalem are forbidden to enter area A (Palestinian towns in the West Bank).

* Gaza Strip residents are forbidden to enter the West Bank via the Allenby crossing.

* Palestinians are forbidden to travel abroad via Ben-Gurion Airport.

* Children under age 16 are forbidden to leave Nabus without an original birth certificate and parental escort.

* Palestinians with permits to enter Israel are forbidden to enter through the crossings used by Israelis and tourists.

* Gaza residents are forbidden to establish residency in the West Bank.

* West Bank residents are forbidden to establish residency in the Jordan valley, seam line communities or the villages of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan.

* Palestinians are forbidden to transfer merchandise and cargo through internal West Bank checkpoints.

__________________________


Periodic prohibitions

* Residents of certain parts of the West Bank are forbidden to travel to the rest of the West Bank.

* People of a certain age group - mainly men from the age of 16 to 30, 35 or 40 - are forbidden to leave the areas where they reside (usually Nablus and other cities in the northern West Bank).

* Private cars may not pass the Swahara-Abu Dis checkpoint (which separates the northern and southern West Bank). This was canceled for the first time two weeks ago under the easing of restrictions.

__________________________


Travel permits required

* A magnetic card (intended for entrance to Israel, but eases the passage through checkpoints within the West Bank).

* A work permit for Israel (the employer must come to the civil administration offices and apply for one).

* A permit for medical treatment in Israel and Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem (The applicant must produce an invitation from the hospital, his complete medical background and proof that the treatment he is seeking cannot be provided in the occupied territories).

* A travel permit to pass through Jordan valley checkpoints.

* A merchant's permit to transfer goods.

* A permit to farm along the seam line requires a form from the land registry office, a title deed, and proof of first-degree relations to the registered property owner.

* Entry permit for the seam line (for relatives, medical teams, construction workers, etc. Those with permits must enter and leave via the same crossing even if it is far away or closing early).

* Permits to pass from Gaza, through Israel to the West Bank.

* A birth certificate for children under 16.

* A long-standing resident identity card for those who live in seam-line enclaves.

__________________________


Checkpoints and barriers

* There were 75 manned checkpoints in the West Bank as of January 9, 2007.

* There are on average 150 mobile checkpoints a week (as of September 2006).

* There are 446 obstacles placed between roads and villages, including concrete cubes, earth ramparts, 88 iron gates and 74 kilometers of fences along main roads.

* There are 83 iron gates along the separation fence, dividing lands from their owners. Only 25 of the gates open occasionally.

__________________________


Main roads closed to Palestinians, officially or in practice

* Road 90 (the Jordan Valley thoroughfare)

* Road 60, in the North (from the Shavei Shomron military base, west of Nablus and northward).

* Road 585 along the settlements Hermesh and Dotan.

* Road 557 west from the Taibeh-Tul Karm junction (the Green Line) to Anabta (excluding the residents of Shufa), and east from south of Nablus (the Hawara checkpoint) to the settlement Elon Moreh.

* Road 505, from Zatara (Nablus junction) to Ma'ale Efraim.

* Road 5, from the Barkan junction to the Green Line.

* Road 446, from Dir Balut junction to Road 5 (by the settlements Alei Zahav and Peduel).

* Roads 445 and 463 around the settlement Talmon, Dolev and Nahliel.

* Road 443, from Maccabim-Reut to Givat Ze'ev.

* Streets in the Old City of Hebron.

* Road 60, from the settlement of Otniel southward.

* Road 317, around the south Hebron Hills settlements.

__________________________


Travel time before 2000 versus today

Tul Karm-Nablus
Then: half an hour, at the most.
Now: At least an hour.

Tul Karm-Ramallah
Then: less than one hour.
Now: Two hours.

Beit Ur al-Fawqa-Ramallah
Then: 10 minutes.
Now: 45 minutes.

Katana/Beit Anan-Ramallah
Then: 15 minutes.
Now: One hour to 90 minutes.

Bir Naballah-Jerusalem
Then: seven minutes.
Now: One hour.

Katana-Jerusalem
Then: five minutes.
Now: "Nobody goes to Jerusalem anymore."

(top)