OCHA Closure Update – Occupied Palestinian Territory

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - May 31, 2008 - Back to Resources Page [1]

Movement and access for 2.4 million Palestinians living in the West Bank has been gradually restricted by the Israeli authorities since the beginning of the second Intifada in September 2000 through the implementation of the internal closure regime.

Physical obstacles are the key component of this regime: unstaffed obstacles (earth mounds, trenches, road blocks, road gates, etc), staffed checkpoints (full and partial), random or “flying” checkpoints, and the Barrier.

These obstacles, form part of the security measures Israel has identified as necessary to protect Israeli citizens living both in Israel and in West Bank settlements. They are operated in conjunction with a variety of administrative and legislative measures which include, (but are not restricted to) the formal annexation of territory to Israel, the declaration of areas as “closed military zones”, the prohibition on the use of roads based on identification documentation and permits, the prohibition on the movement of people through checkpoints subject to age and gender criteria, the closure of checkpoints during certain hours and the imposition of curfews on specific communities. These measures are frequently implemented in an unpredictable way.

As a result, the total number of closure obstacles present at a given time, although indicative, does not fully capture the relative severity of the closure regime. Similarly, one cannot fully assess the real impact of a change in the number of physical obstacles without considering the “quality” of the particular obstacles added or removed.

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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - May 31, 2008 - Back to Resources Page [1]

OCHA Closure Update – Occupied Palestinian Territory - May 2008