Special Envoy to JerusalemBetween the city of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, and Jerusalem, there are barely nine kilometers. But in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, distances are measured in time. A time that the Israeli military decides through the checkpoints (checkpoints) that Palestinians must cross not only to enter Israel, but also to move within the West Bank or East Jerusalem.
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On Sunday I went from Jerusalem to Bethlehem with a Palestinian driver. The Wajd has legal residence in Jerusalem and may have a car with an Israeli license plate, with a yellow plate. Thanks to this we were able to drive on the modern highway that connects the big Israeli cities with Jerusalem. Since the October 7 attack by Hamas, it has been filled with flags with the Star of David and the two blue stripes representing the Jordan River and the Nile. In contrast, the cars of Palestinians living in the West Bank have white license plates, and cannot drive on the highway: they have to drive on winding, unmaintained roads, including cart paths.
Upon arriving at checkpoint of Bethlehem, which has a toll-like structure, the Israeli soldiers don’t even stop us. We enter the West Bank and the scene changes: the road leading into the city is blocked because in the morning the Israeli military lowered a large yellow barrier that gives access to the so-called Area C. These are the pieces of the West Bank that, although belonging in the Palestinian Authority, are under the exclusive military control of Israel. The driver keeps asking everyone who can find where we can pass. Further on, a man driving in the opposite direction warns us that it is also blocked off there, they point out another road and we find it also blocked, this one with three large concrete blocks on top of the road.
At the end, we are shown another street with a long line of cars moving slowly. The Israeli military has thrown a large mountain of stone and rubble onto the asphalt, but the Palestinians have flattened the left bank and, driving carefully not to damage the undercarriage, you can drive over it. It took us about forty minutes.
Returning to Jerusalem will be more complicated. In the middle of the afternoon we try to redo the path and find that the mountain of dirt and rubble has grown again and it is impossible to pass. We enter another road further south. Drivers wonder about the situation when crossing and no one knows anything for sure: there are those who say that it is possible to pass higher, others who do not. We end up further north, through the area known as “the valley of hell”, because there are many accidents: it’s a steep road, full of tight curves and no traffic lights.
The queue is getting longer and longer and now some trucks have joined it. A taxi driver tells us to follow him, and a few meters ahead he turns left and leaves the road to enter an unpaved track. But after 20 minutes they warn us that it is not possible to pass there either. Let’s redo the infernal road, now uphill. The driver decides to do what he was trying to avoid: take a road surrounded by settlements, where he fears attacks by settlers. Until a few years ago the segregation on the roads was absolute, but now that the settlements have expanded so much in the West Bank, their inhabitants also use the roads that were previously reserved only for Palestinians.
Live traffic
The Wajd has tuned in the Falastine radio formula channel in which, between songs, they report on road closures, in a unique traffic bulletin. Service information They even give a Whatsapp number where you can say where you are and where you want to go and they show you the best route. There is also the option of Google Maps, which does not indicate the location or status of the checkpoints nor the barriers, of course, but it does give clues: the most congested roads are the places where you can pass. Just in case, we stop at a gas station to fill up and buy water and some cookies.
After two and a half hours of driving around we end up calling a local journalist who, a few minutes later, maps out an exit route for us. We climb it and we are not the only ones: we enter a village located on a mountain, and we find that the residents have already organized themselves to regulate traffic by indicating the way with the flashlights of their mobile phones. There’s someone on every corner – lots of cars going both ways on the main street, steep and with tight curves, and now that it’s dark it would be very easy for an accident to happen. Apparently the locals are used to acting as impromptu city guards.
The restrictions on mobility by the Israeli authorities in the occupied West Bank do not meet any standards. The checkpoints and the obstacles on the roads do not have a timetable, or a regime. Sometimes they are open and sometimes they are closed, sometimes they only let old women and men through but not young people. Sometimes only NGO cars and journalists. Sometimes they check the vehicles and sometimes they don’t, sometimes they identify the drivers and ask them questions. Sometimes you have to leave the car on one side and cross them on foot, and continue on the other side by bus or taxi.
Therefore, when they wake up each morning, Palestinians do not know what will happen: whether they will make it to work or university, to the doctor’s appointment or to the exam. Every day is an unknown marked by randomness, which makes it much more difficult to manage day to day. Stuck in a permanent jam and feeling like they can’t control their lives. And if you are still wondering how the anecdote in this chronicle ended: we arrived in Jerusalem three and a half hours later. Three and a half hours for nine kilometers.
2023-10-26 05:58:45
#Israeli #toll #Palestinian #roads
