Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights

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Bethlehem

Bethlehem checkpoint has been about completely closed over the past two months. On March 9 in the morning, for example, it was reported, "the checkpoint is deserted, only a doctor and a bishop are allowed to enter Jerusalem. During the period of observation nobody enters Bethlehem." This remained the case for most of the period during the incursions into the city of Bethlehem until 12 May 2002. This day, at 10.30 o'clock, the last four tanks were loaded on trucks and driven away, while a big army bulldozer remained at the checkpoint. The last soldiers were leaving the checkpoint, which was used as an army base during the military operation just like previous incursions. There is a lot of destruction. The checkpoint was open for people with international and diplomatic passports and vehicles, but remained closed for Palestinians. Only during the last two weeks of March the checkpoint was opened as normal.

Cross check
Reports of ICW and Machsom Watch focus mainly on the hunt for illegal workers 'by-passing' the checkpoint every morning. In Machsom Watch's report over the second half of 2001, it says "It is to this checkpoint that workers from the Palestinian towns of Bethlehem and Hebron and dozens of villages and refugee camps in their vicinities, come each day in their attempt to reach Jerusalem, in search of work, medical care, commerce study or family visits." The report further mentions, "While until September 2000 the checkpoint was usually bustling with activity, including a constant stream of service taxis and commercial activity, this all disappeared since the start of the Second Intifada. Since that time the movement of Palestinians requesting to leave via the checkpoint is sparse during most of the day." "The main reason is the cessation of the issue of entry permits to Israel to laborers, merchants and visitors." "In the absence of entry permits to Israel, the major movement of Palestinians in the area of the checkpoint takes place on the paths and byways that by-pass the checkpoint." "While the period before mid 2001 indicated dual implementation of policy, namely on the one hand soldiers patrolled in the vicinity of the checkpoint in order to catch laborers and others trying to by-pass and on the other hand often ignoring hundreds of people who managed to slip by unnoticed or at least unhindered, this changed since the end of July. Since that time, staff at the checkpoint was doubled and every morning, border police would conduct violent and prolonged pursuit of laborers crossing the valley resulting in a decline of laborers trying to by-pass." Concerning the check of identity cards Machsom Watch says that it observed deliberate delay at checkpoints, "in other words long hold-ups aimed at punishing people."

The above is confirmed by a report of ICW of January 31, 2002 at 8.45. "The checkpoint had been closed, no cars or people were passing though. Some soldiers forced waiting men to line up in a single file. Body searches of each man were then conducted. After the body searches the men were led further up the road toward the checkpoint. The men were then made to sit on the pavement, directly opposite the guard post. There were approximately 120 men detained. Soldiers stated that they were investigating a shooting that took place earlier that morning and that all the men needed to be checked. Their ID cards were then confiscated. After the arrest of two, the majority of the Israeli forces left and only the usual checkpoint complement remained. The checkpoint was reopened and both vehicles and pedestrians were being allowed through in both directions. At 12.30, there were still 120 Palestinians being detained. After a while one soldier came to the group with some ID cards, handed them back and released them. There were no more than about 20 men allowed to leave. At the guard post one soldier was on the telephone reading out each man's name and ID number. It took well over half an hour for the list to be given. Each man did indeed receive his ID and was let free without further harassment. The time was 14.45."

Interviews

Fifty interviews were held at the four different checkpoints during March and May.(14) These outcomes give an indication of the way Palestinians crossing these checkpoints perceive these checkpoints and how they describe the effects on their daily life. Because of the small sample no general conclusions can be drawn.

The majority of the people were aged between 16 and 60, namely 90 percent. Of the other ten percent two were younger, while three persons were said to be older. 65 percent of the respondents were male and 35 percent was female. Most people (69 percent) said to live in the Jerusalem area. Only 6 percent said to be from outside the Jerusalem area, namely Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron. 25 percent did not specify their area of residence.

Most people were interviewed at Ras Al-Amud checkpoint, 35 percent. The remaining ones were about equally divided between Bethlehem (25 percent), Ram (20 percent) and Qalandia checkpoint (20 percent). Half of all respondents said to cross the checkpoints for work purposes; 25 percent for school or study; and 10 percent for health reasons. The other 15 percent said to cross the checkpoints for social, religious or other reasons.

About 70 percent indicated to cross the checkpoints on a daily basis, while 20 percent said to cross several times a week. Only ten percent passes the checkpoints once a week or less.

Most people (65 percent) cross the checkpoints on foot, while 25 percent said to cross by private car. The remaining interviewees (10 percent) use the service taxi or other transportation to cross the checkpoints.

The estimated time people have to wait varies between no waiting time or less than five minutes to up to more than one hour according to the respondents' perception. This was indicated by 25 percent of the people interviewed without further specification. A same percentage (25 percent) said to wait more than one hour on average. About 20 percent estimated that they wait between fifteen minutes to half-an-hour, while fifteen percent said the average waiting time differs between five to fifteen minutes. According to ten percent this is between half-an-hour and one hour. Only five percent estimated to wait less than five minutes. Based on these outcomes the average waiting time is about 35 minutes to cross the checkpoints according to the fifty interviewees. This is of course influenced by the checkpoint and the kind of transport used to cross, as passing on foot is generally speaking faster than crossing by car.

The overwhelming majority said that they had to show their identity card when crossing the checkpoints, namely 80 percent. The other 20 percent said that they could just pass without showing anything. According to 85 percent of the respondents there have been days since the start of the second Intifada that they have not been able to cross the checkpoints to enter Jerusalem at all. Only fifteen percent said that they have never experienced this so far.

About all of the people interviewed shared the opinion that the checkpoints influence their access to work, education, health care and social, cultural and/or religious institutions. This is mostly indicated according to the main purpose of crossing as mentioned before. Some did not answer the question and only one said that the checkpoints did not affect the person's access. One interviewee, for example, who repeatedly tried to cross the Ras Al-Amud checkpoint, said: "The checkpoint has become an obstacle to me. Today, I was surprised that I was allowed to cross the checkpoint without being stopped at all. Usually this is not the case. Despite my age, I feel that a ghost is chasing me every time I cross the checkpoint. I usually have to cross for medical treatment, shopping, or praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

Concerning a question about what people observed when they cross checkpoints, 30 percent said never to have seen any incidents, while 70 percent said they did. Incidents reported vary from "stopping workers and asking them to line up against the wall and lift their hands up"; "Stopping students going to school or university"; "searching people"; "aiming guns at people waiting"; "soldiers beating people, including women"; "shooting both tear gas as well as rubber bullets". Most of these observations are similar for the different checkpoints.

Opinions about the way people are treated at the checkpoints by the Israeli soldiers or border police differ from not good, not bad to rude and very disrespectful. Several respondents mentioned that this dependents on the political situation and the mood of the soldiers on duty, while others said that recently soldiers are becoming more aggressive, tense and nervous than before, which affects their behavior towards people passing negatively.

Statement JCSER 13 March 2002

��As the situation in the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories is rapidly escalating, the situation at the checkpoints around Jerusalem is becoming worse with more and more incidents being reported. For example on Monday morning, 11 March 2002, one day after the killing of a Palestinian at the A-Rum checkpoint, an armed unit of four border guards stopped five Palestinian schoolchildren, while crossing the checkpoint on their way to school. The soldiers forced the children to lift their cloth in order to be able to search them. They also kicked their school bags frightening these children.

Rafiq An-Namari, one of these children, told JCSER's field researcher, 'I will stay in my grandfather's house in Wadi Al-Joz neighborhood, so that it won't happen again with me. A military jeep was coming towards us quickly. Four soldiers got off of the jeep. They asked us to put our bags on the ground and lift our hands up. They were directing their weapons in our faces. They asked us to lift our clothes and searched us very carefully. They kicked our bags in their legs and told us to go. "We do not want to see your faces again. Go�." We are very scared.'

'I kept asking myself all day what if they [soldiers] did to me what they did to Izzat Dirgham, 21, who was shot dead by the Israeli soldiers, whilst I was on my way home back from school three days ago, on Sunday, 10 March 2002.'

He added, 'Since the incident, I have been staying in my grandfather's house who takes me to school everyday. I will insist on my father to live in Jerusalem so that it won't happen again with me. I am scared of the soldiers. They do not go away from my mind. I want to live in a place close to my school and away from the checkpoints.'

Conclusions

Although no general conclusions can be drawn from the observations and interviews at the checkpoint, these findings presented above to give an indication of daily checkpoint reality and how people crossing perceive this reality.

Controlling measures often seem inefficient resulting in an estimated delay of about half an hour on average and not aimed to reduce the inconvenience for the people crossing. Decisions often seem arbitrary. Treatment and the ability to cross checkpoints depend to a large extend on the political situation and the individual Israeli soldiers or border police on duty. The increasing political tensions of the last couple of months in which this study was conducted were reflected in daily checkpoint reality resulting in increasing waiting time, incidents of humiliation, harassment and human rights violations reported and observed.

New recent permit policies restricting the freedom of movement of Palestinians even further and practices of more intensive checking without increasing the capacity at the checkpoints accordingly and with unclear security purposes resulted not only in more restrictions, delay, stress, and rights violations, but also increased the feeling of injustice, racial discrimination, and collective punishment amongst the Palestinian people. This is expected to increase further as the current plans to seal of East Jerusalem will be completed.

Conclusions and recommendations

International law

Israel's policy of closure discriminates against Palestinians and regressively impacts their enjoyment of the full range of economic and social rights. Israel's policy of closure is a violation of the freedom of movement (UDHR art. 9 and 13; ICCPR, art. 12, which Israel ratified in 1991) and violates the Convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to which Israel is a State Party. Israel's policy of closure negatively impacts the right to access to work (art. 6 and 7), education (art. 13) and health care (art. 12). Thw imposition of closure represents serious violations to rules of international humanitarian law, specifically, article 50 of the Hague Convention (1907) and Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949), which prohibit the use of collective punishment against civilians ("No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited�") According to Article 33 of the Hague Regulations Addendum to the Hague Convention of 1907, Israel, as an Occupying Power, is under a legal obligation to maintain normal life in the territory it occupies. Israel's actions stand in direct contradiction to the legal duties of an Occupying Power as set forth in customary international law. On 24 November 2001, the UN Committee Against Torture stated Israel's policy of closures may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in breach of article 16 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Israel ratified in 1991.

Israeli law

Although everybody has to right to security, it is a general principle of basic law that any measure of force, as closure is, has to be proportionate, limited by time and extent, and directed towards the purpose intended and must be concluded when that purpose is secured or adjusted when the purpose is not reached. As indicated in Israeli law, security measures should not violate basic rights. This is, for example, stated in the basic law "Human respect and freedom" adopted in 1992.

Effects

The main effects of daily life checkpoint reality for Palestinians with a Jerusalem identity card is that their freedom of movement is restricted. They suffer delays and stress, as they have to cross the checkpoints. However, in most cases, except when there is a total closure, they are able to pass and reach their work place, school, university, health care center, etc. As roadblocks are only set up in the Palestinian neighborhoods of the city, they disproportionately affect the life Palestinian Jerusalemites compared to Jewish citizens and therefore discriminate against them.

The effects of the closure are much more severe for Palestinians without a Jerusalem identity card. The closure policy severely violates their right to freedom of movement, and other economic, social and cultural rights. They have been almost completely banned from the city since the start of the second Intifada, which affects amongst others their access to education, health care, work, and Jerusalem's holy places. The restricted procedures for obtaining permits, finding their way through 'by-pass' roads and the uncertainty of being able to reach Jerusalem safely, the time and extra costs it takes, and the increasing changes of being caught, harassed, and/or humiliated by Israeli soldiers or border police makes that many people avoid coming to Jerusalem. This policy mostly hits those, who depend in one way or the other on institutions in the city.

Impact

The closure resulted in the breakdown of the social and economic fabric of Occupied East Jerusalem. It can be concluded that the use of closure on East Jerusalem for over ten years, which intensified considerably over the last one-year-and-a-half has greatly affected the eastern part of the city. In many ways, the closure did cut East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. It resulted in the transfer of many Palestinian institutions out of East Jerusalem in the early nineties. The remaining ones, especially in the health care and education sector, still depend largely on clients and professional staff from outside the Jerusalem boundaries. These are the ones that are affected most, which is reflected in their services, both quantitatively as well as qualitatively. All sectors are trying to find ways to cope with the stricter closure.

All social institutions, including health care, education, cultural and religious institutions report that the closure affects the services they provide as less people can make use of these. They used to serve Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Nowadays these are almost exclusively accessible to the Palestinian people with a Jerusalem identity card. Procedures for obtaining entry permits to make use of services of East Jerusalem's institutions for non-Jerusalemites have become so restricted since the start of the second Intifada that they are almost impossible to obtain. This resulted in the fact that many institutions have been forces to decrease or revise their services. Especially according to health care and educational institutions the closure contributes to the decreasing quality of services for Palestinians.

An important aspect of decreasing services and quality is because staff experiences enormous difficulties in reaching their workplace. This affects especially the institutions, which are dependant of staff from outside Jerusalem. Not only has it become much more difficult to obtain permits, as the closure on East Jerusalem became tighter it became more difficult to 'by-pass' checkpoints and the time people have to wait at the checkpoints increased. This resulted for all institutions that staff members have been unable to come at all or arrive late. This not only affects the services quantitatively, namely lost time, but also qualitatively as people experience more stress, and financial resources

Recommendations

To the Israeli government

Referring to the current situation and recent developments, including plans being implemented today to completely seal of East Jerusalem by building a fence around it, JCSER urges the Israeli government and specifically the Israeli Defense Minister and Chief of Staff, who are directly responsible for these checkpoints, to reconsider and revise its current security policy of imposing closures on East Jerusalem as these do violate the rights of the Palestinians, Jerusalem residents as well as non-Jerusalem residents.

The Israeli Defense Minister stated several times that he had no intention of harming the Palestinian population. However, this is exactly what the closure policy is doing as described in this report without making Israel more secure. Therefore, this policy should be changed.

An appropriate solution needs to be found for both sides' interests, namely the right to security for all without violating basic rights of Palestinians. Security measures should in all cases comply with Israeli as well as international law.

It should be acknowledged that the security and freedom of one people cannot be achieved at the expense of another people. A just and lasting solution of the conflict by ending the occupation and equal rights for all based on international law will provide the best security for both Israeli as well as Palestinian people on the long term.

In the meantime security measures should not be based on someone's national origin or on the color of one's identity card, but on actual security threats. Israel should revise these elements that discriminate against Palestinians. As Jews move freely, including crossing the green line, and can pass checkpoints without being checked, this is not the case for Palestinians. As Israel does not define its borders for its Israeli citizens, it not only closes these for Palestinians, but also restricts their freedom of movement within the territories it occupied. This Apartheid-like system discriminates against the Palestinian people and violates their rights to freedom of movement and other economic, social and cultural rights. Therefore, the current closure, including permit and checkpoint policy, should be revised.

These checkpoint practices, which are increasingly taking place as a mean of collective punishment, should be immediately stopped. Unnecessary delay, harassment and humiliation should be brought to an end. Clear procedures and infrastructure should be put in place to reduce the inconvenience for people crossing to an absolute minimum disregarding their origin. This means, for example, more lanes before checkpoints and more capacity to avoid delays, clear instructions and enforcement of these instructions, which includes respect for basic rights. Soldiers and border police should be held accountable for their actions. Cases of abuse and complains should be reported to and investigated by an independent committee and perpetrators brought to justice.

To the international community

The international community has a legal obligation under international law to keep Israel accountable for human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law. It should take effective measures to lift the closure, to ensure Palestinians freedom of movement, and to oblige Israel to respect international conventions, in particular, those related to social and economic rights, and comply with international humanitarian law. JCSER urges the international community to immediately deploy an international protection presence as this measure will guarantee increased security and safety for both people and will protect the them against human rights violations, including those inflicted upon them at checkpoints.

To the civil society

Until a proper system is in place, which does not violate human rights and humanitarian law and does not discriminate against the Palestinian people, it is important for civil society organizations to keep monitoring the situation and documenting incidents of human rights violations at the checkpoints and the effects of the closure on the society from a human rights perspective on an ongoing basis. JCSER supports the work of observers that has been undertaken so far and encourages civil society to continue doing this on a structural basis until an effective international protection force is deployed.

Notes

Note 1 : Israel considers Occupied East Jerusalem as part of Israel as it annexed this part of the city after the 1967 war. However, no international body or hardly any country recognized this annexation.

Note 2: Jerusalem Post (29 January 2002) 'Jerusalem defense plan will close city to PA areas'.

Note 3: Dugard, J. (6 March 2002) Question of the violation of human rights in the Occupied Arab Territories, including Palestine; Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights.

Note 4: UNSCO (2002)'Paying the price'; Coping with closure in Jericho, Gaza City, and in two Palestinian villages

Note 5: Ha'aretz (20 May 2002) 'The real disaster is the closure'.

Note 6: Ha'aretz (21 February 2002) 'Checkpoints in the territories and Jerusalem'.

Note 7: Ha'aretz (2 November 2001)

Note 8: Al Haq (2 December 2000) 'Israel promises to loosen restrictions for Ramadan while tightening the closure imposed on the Occupied Territories restricting Palestinians' freedom of religion during the Muslim and Christian Holy months.'

Note 9: UNSCO (2001) 'The impact of the Palestinian Economy of confrontation, border closures and mobility restrictions, 1 October 2000 - 30 September 2001'.

Note 10: World Bank (March 2002) 'Fifteen months Intifada, Closures & Palestinian economic crisis: an assessment.'

Note 11: Rouhana, K. (2001) 'The reality of Jerusalem's Palestinians today.' Jerusalem Media and Communication Center.

Note 12: World Bank (March 2002) 'Fifteen months Intifada, Closures & Palestinian economic crisis: an assessment.'

Note 13: UNSCO (2001) 'The impact of the Palestinian Economy of confrontation, border closures and mobility restrictions, 1 October 2000 - 30 September 2001'.

Note 14: Because of the situation, both the external political situation as well as international priorities during this period, JCSER has not been able to conduct as many interviews at checkpoints as it planned to do.

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