Haaretz
Tevet 21, 5767
When the government and
defense establishment declare their intention to mitigate some of the
restrictions on the Palestinians in the territories, they're counting on
the Israeli media's short attention span.
Announcing alleviations
to the press is immediately rewarded with large headlines, the improvement
of Israel's image overseas and an easing in U.S. pressure for concessions.
Usually nobody checks whether the alleviations were actually carried out.
If the Palestinians complain that the mitigations were not
implemented, we can always accuse them of ungrateful whining and issue a
bunch of confusing data in response.
However, after a trip along
West Bank roadblocks yesterday, Haaretz found that while the traffic flow
in a small number of the roads improved, the situation is very far from
the rosy picture Israel has painted.
The IDF promised not to
inspect every car passing through the 16 central roadblocks in the West
Bank, and to instead inspect one in every few dozen.
But at least
some soldiers continue inspecting every vehicle, causing huge traffic jams
and delaying cars for hours.
Other roadblocks reported as open had
not been manned anyway for quite a while; and Israel's promise to remove
earth ramps blocking entrances to villages has not been kept.
When
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives on Sunday, she may be
tempted to believe that Israel has kept its word. Her hosts will tell
Rice's entourage that no soldiers man the roadblocks at the entrance to
Beit Jallah and Halhul - but they won't bother to mention that they had
not been occupied since before the alleviations were declared.
Despite the IDF's announcement on the change at the Tapuach
junction, a central intersection linking the Nablus region to Ramallah,
Haaretz has found almost no change there. Every Palestinian car was held
up for inspection.
When the traffic at the nearby Jit junction was
flowing smoothly, a new roadblock materialized a few kilometers away at
the Yitzhar junction. Here there were no alleviations whatsoever. Every
car was stopped and inspected carefully, youngsters were taken off
vehicles and asked to raise their shirts. As always in such cases, a
traffic jam was formed.
A police van demanded that a Palestinian
taxi driver in one of the pirate lanes hand over his license and identity
card. The police disappeared with his papers, leaving the driver helpless.
Numerous drivers were stuck there for hours.
The IDF seems to be
making a mockery of the state's promises. Are the soldiers dictating the
situation while their commanders turn a blind eye? It's hard to explain.
With no effective supervision of the implementation, it is doubtful
whether the prime minister and defense minister are even aware of the real
situation.