Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Israele disconnette la valle del Giordano dalla Cis-Giordania

Israele sta togliendo ai Palestinesi risorse idriche, continuita'
territoriale e accesso ai confini.
Non male per  "separazione" e "uno stato Palestinese sostenibile".
Israel cuts Jordan Rift from rest of West Bank
By Amira Hass
Haaretz
13 February 2006
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/681938.html
While the international community busied itself with the
disengagement from the Gaza Strip last summer, Israel
completed another cut-off process, which went unnoticed:
in 2005, Israel completed a process of cutting off the
eastern sector of the West Bank, including the Jordan Rift
Valley, from the remainder of the West Bank.
Some 2,000,000 Palestinians, residents of the West Bank,
are prohibited from entering the area, which constitutes
around one-third of the West Bank, and includes the Jordan
Rift, the area of the Dead Sea shoreline and the eastern
slopes of the West Bank mountains.
Military sources told Haaretz that the moves have been
"security measures" adopted by the Israel Defense Forces,
and have no connection to any political intentions
whatsoever.
Restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the Jordan
Valley were imposed at the start of the intifada, and were
gradually expanded. But the sweeping prohibition regarding
entry into the area by Palestinians was imposed, in fact,
after security responsibility in Jericho was given back to
the Palestinians on March 16, 2005.
At the time, Palestinian sources say, Palestinian
travelers coming across the Allenby Bridge (the West
Bank's only direct link overseas) were banned from passing
through the Jordan Valley even if they were heading to the
northern West Bank and the villages adjacent to the
valley's checkpoints. Instead, the travelers are required
to go through Jericho, and from there, the road is long
and filled with checkpoints and delays.
Furthermore, since then, residents of Jericho and the
remainder of the West Bank have been banned from passing
through the Ouja checkpoint, north of Jericho, in the
direction of the Jordan Valley.
In addition to affecting others, the prohibition also
applies to thousands of residents of towns and villages in
the northern West Bank, like Tubas and Tamun, most of
whose lands are in the Jordan Valley, and some of whose
residents have been living there for many years. The
residents of the Jordan Valley villages are tied to the
northern West Bank villages through family connections,
joint land ownership, work, schooling, and medical and
social services.
Also affected by the ban are people who for years have
earned a living by doing seasonal agricultural work for
Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, as well as an unknown
number (several thousand apparently) of Bedouin and
sheep-herders who live in the area permanently in tents
and makeshift structures, but are registered as residents
of towns and villages a few kilometers to the east.
Since the start of the intifada, Palestinians have been
banned from using Road 90, the Jordan Valley Road, with
use of the road restricted to residents of the Jordan
Valley, and only north of Jericho.
This picture of such a large Palestinian area being
absolutely cut off from the rest of the West Bank has
emerged from tours and talks Haaretz has conducted in the
area over a period of a number of weeks, from testimonies
gathered by the B'Tselem human rights organization and
reports from officials from the UN Office for the
Coordination of Human Affairs.
Four permanent checkpoints ensure that passage is denied
to Palestinians whose identity documents do not list them
as residents of the Jordan Valley. Entry is permitted only
to a few thousand holders of special permits from the
Civil Administration, as well as some 5,000 Palestinians
who work in the settlements.
Around 1,500 of those who hold the Civil Administration
permits (valid for three months and not always extended)
are residents of the area around Tubas who own land and
work in the Jordan Valley. Several hundred are teachers
and health workers; the remainder are primarily traders
and drivers.
Special, one-off entry permits are granted for
"humanitarian cases"  weddings, other family affairs,
funerals and so on  and have to be coordinated in advance
with the Civil Administration and the military.
To enforce the ban, the Israel Defense Forces conducts
frequent nighttime raids in the Jordan Valley villages.
Palestinians who are not registered as residents of the
area are driven beyond the Tayasir checkpoint and dropped
off. The soldiers also confiscate the identity documents
of Palestinians who have the "incorrect" address.
An IDF source who confirmed the above mentioned
restrictions on Palestinian movement in the Jordan Valley
said that the only way to protect an area as large as the
Jordan Valley was to impose limitations on movement
checkpoints to control and direct the traffic to provide
protection for the Jewish communities and Road 90, a
strategic thoroughfare.


mentre i palestinesi dovrebbero "pazientare" gli altri agiscono
.........

Palestinian movement in the Jordan Valley
"Restrictions" ... che e' diverso da "ban".
-Stefano