For a month now, since the second week of December 2005, the Israel
Defense Forces has severed the northern part of the West Bank from other
sections, and prohibited residents from traveling toward Ramallah and
points southward.

The ban applies to some 800,000 people, residents of the Tul Karm,
Nablus and Jenin provinces. Until January 2, the ban applied just to
residents of Jenin and Tul Karm. Since then it has been extended to
Nablus area residents.

The IDF did not issue an order on the new arrangements, which people
only found out about at the permanent and so-called flying checkpoints
that have prevented them over the past four weeks from traveling
southward from the Za'atara junction (the Tapuah checkpoint). They were
not informed how long the travel ban would be in effect.

The IDF has also cut off direct traffic links within the northern West
Bank. The main artery - Road 60, running from the Shavei Shomron
settlement to the road leading to the settlements Mevo Dotan and Homesh,
has been closed to all Palestinian traffic since mid-August by means of
three steel gates. Military sources have told international
organizations that this road will be closed to Palestinian traffic until
the construction of an additional security fence around Shavei Shomron
is completed.

At various hours, there is also an age restriction on leaving through
various checkpoints. The restrictions affect people between the ages of
16 and 30.

The IDF also forbids Tul Karm residents from entering Nablus through the
checkpoint at the western entrance, Beit Iba. Entry is permitted only
from the northeast (via Tubas and Al-Badhan), which entails a detour of
dozens of kilometers on long side roads.

The IDF Spokesman's Office told Haaretz, "In the wake of many
intelligence warnings and attempts by terror organizations in northern
Samaria to launch terror attacks against the Israeli home front, a few
barricades were erected to prevent vehicular traffic by the residents of
Jenin, Tul Karm and Nablus south of the Nablus-Tul Karm line. The
decision to prevent passage was based on a periodic evaluation of the
situation. Humanitarian cases are permitted to pass at any time."

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) stated in a letter
last week to GOC Central Command, Major General Yair Naveh, that there
is concern that the travel ban was imposed as a punitive measure against
the civilian population and is "therefore improper by dint of being a
collective punishment strictly prohibited under international
humanitarian law."

The letter by ACRI attorney Limor Yehuda said that these "comprehensive
travel bans" create "a disconnect between parts of the West Bank and
populations and communities that are interconnected in all aspects of
life, and brings in its wake a mortal blow to the ability of the entire
population to maintain economic, social and cultural ties."

The IDF calls this prevention of movement from the northern West Bank to
other areas "differentiation." It was implemented several times last
year, for varying durations. Sometimes the separation is in both directions.

The "differentiation" can be felt in the small number of Palestinian
vehicles on the roads, as well as in the very lengthy wait cars and
people have to endure in exiting the Hawara checkpoint, south of Nablus,
and at the flash checkpoints set up at exits from side roads used by
Palestinians. However, according to activists from MachsomWatch, the
human rights organization that is documenting the policy of restricting
Palestinian freedom of movement, the "differentiation" is lasting longer
this time and is being enforced more strictly.

At the Za'atara (Tapuah) checkpoint - which has been upgraded over the
past two months into a giant "terminal" through which all Palestinian
traffic from the northern and western West Bank is channeled - passage
is being denied to Palestinians who have already passed through the
screenings at all the preceding checkpoints, on foot or by car, and
whose identity cards list them as residents of the northern West Bank.
The villages along the road from Ariel to Tapuah are further blocked by
fences, which prevent leaving through the orchards.

MachsomWatch activists have documented numerous occasions on which
students and other residents from the Tul Karm and Jenin regions were
either prevented from entering Nablus or else were warned that once they
entered, they would not be allowed to leave.

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