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Page last updated
March 26, 2007
Understanding the conflict
Free movement
See also section on residency rights
1. Machsom Watch
Machsom Watch was founded in January 2001 in response to repeated reports in the press about human rights abuses of Palestinians crossing army and border police checkpoints. It produces weekly regular on the situation at the checkpoints - especially useful are the monthly summaries.
2. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) produces regular reports on the situation.
Two important OCHA reports in 2006:
a) Territorial Fragmentation of the West Bank
May 2006
Movement restrictions for Palestinians has worsened in the past six month. Increasingly the West Bank is being divided into smaller areas with movement between them controlled by checkpoints, roadblocks and permits.b) West Bank Closure Count and Analysis
Sept 2006
'The closure system is a primary cause of the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It restricts Palestinian access not only to basic services such as health and education, but divides communities from their land and one another, places of work and sites of religious worship.. The types of obstacles used to restrict free Palestinian movement include permanent and partially manned checkpoints, roadblocks (consisting of rows of 1-metre concrete blocks), metal gates, earth mounds, earth walls (a long series of earth mounds), trenches, road barriers and an elaborate system of permits.'This report by OCHA provides an update on the number of obstacles that are part of the system of internal closure within the West Bank. It shows an increase of 11% in the number of physical obstacles erected by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since the beginning of 2006 and 40% since August 2005...
