New checkpoint to sever W. Bank south of Nablus

30/10/2005

By Amira Hass

The Israel Defense Forces has been constructing a major new checkpoint south of Nablus, at the Zaatara (Tapuah) junction, for checking Palestinian cars arriving from the northern and western parts of the West Bank.

The checkpoint was decided upon by the IDF Central Command nine months ago, according to military sources. It will have 10 lanes: six for southbound vehicles; one non-check lane for Israeli cars; one lane for vehicles designated "humanitarian," and two lanes for northbound vehicles.

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The reported IDF measures over the last few days to sever the northern West Bank from its central region are nothing new. They were previously introduced as preventive or responsive measures, to a varying degree of harshness, and are integrated into the permanent plan, of which the new checkpoint forms a central part.

Nablus Governor Mahmoud Alloul believes the checkpoint will complete the IDF's efforts over the past five years to disconnect Nablus and Jenin provinces from the rest of the West Bank - by closing roads to Palestinian traffic, blocking secondary roads, and erecting other mobile and immobile roadblocks.

Alloul told Haaretz last week that, based on the experience of the past few years - especially the development of the Qalandiyah checkpoint south of Ramallah - he has concluded that Israel will gradually treat the Zaatara checkpoint as "an international crossing," which is ostensibly situated between Palestinian and Israeli territory, just as the Qalandiyah checkpoint grew from an improvised checkpoint into a crossing that looks like a border terminal. This will complete the transformation of the Nablus-Jenin region into a separate canton severed from the central West Bank, Alloul said.

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gets you 7 hits, all about the Israeli occupation.

It's a shame that successive democratically elected governments have left this type of historical record in the 21st century.