Israeli rights group slams West Bank road blocks as "illegal"

Aug 7, 2007, 7:07 GMT

Tel Aviv - Most of the dozens of manned checkpoints and hundreds more physical roadblocks set up in the West Bank by the Israeli military are 'illegal' and constitute collective punishment, a report published Tuesday by an Israeli human rights group said.

Some 47 checkpoints and 455 physical obstructions on roads currently exist throughout the West Bank, said the report by B'Tselem.

The roadblocks were originally erected in response to 'specific security threats' during and since the outbreak of the current Palestinian Intifada (uprising) against Israel almost seven years ago, it conceded.

But since then, their purpose has also become to facilitate the safe passage of Jewish settlers on roads restricted to Palestinians, said the organization, which called this an 'ulterior interest' that made many of the roadblocks illegal under international law.

On a total of some 312 kilometres of main roads in the West Bank, cars with Palestinian license plates are forbidden or restricted, B'Tselem said.

'Even if all the restrictions are intended to achieve legitimate security interests, many of them would violate the principle of proportionality and therefore be illegal,' the report said.

The roadblocks split the West Bank into six hardly-connected sections, and make it complicated for Palestinians to reach medical services, travel to work, transport goods and visit relatives.

The restrictions therefore gravely affect economy and trade in the West Bank because of the high costs of transportation, impede social and family ties and even harm law enforcement, the report warned.

The human rights group called on Israel to 'immediately remove all' restrictions on movement in the West Bank, including its controversial security barrier, and evacuate all Jewish settlements there.

Israel's Justice Ministry said in a reaction that the roadblocks were erected to protect Israeli citizens and that they were put in place after a 'long range of' of suicide and shooting attacks by Palestinian militants since the beginning of the Intifada in late 2000.

The roadblocks have in the past years prevented hundreds of attacks 'aimed at Israel's civilian population,' said the ministry.