Amnesty calls to end policy of closures and restriction of movement
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 9/10/2003

"Israel must put an end to the imposition of disproportionate and discriminatory restrictions on Palestinians' movement in the Occupied Territories which have crippled the Palestinian economy and caused widespread poverty, unemployment and increasing health problems," Amnesty International said in a report published Tuesday.

The London-based human rights-advocacy association sees closures, blockades, checkpoints, curfews and a barrage of other restrictions effectively confine some three and a half million Palestinians to a form of town arrest.

The report "Surviving under siege - The impact of movement restrictions on the right to work" also deplores that restrictions have often prevented Palestinians from reaching their workplaces or distributing their products and factories and farms have been driven out of business by losses incurred, dramatically increased transport costs and loss of export markets.

AI also says "unemployment has soared to over 50 percent, more than half the population is now living below the poverty line and malnutrition and other illnesses have increased," leading most Palestinians in the Occupied Territories to rely, to some degree at least, on charity for food and other basic needs.

"The existence of charity and humanitarian assistance does not absolve Israel from its obligation to ensure the Palestinians' right to work, so that they can feed themselves and their families with dignity," says Amnesty International.

The organization that calls these moves "arbitrary, discriminatory or collective measures and punishment on the Palestinian population" reminds Israel of its obligation under international law to ensure freedom of movement, an adequate standard of living, and as normal a life as possible to the population in the occupied territories.

"The sweeping restrictions imposed by Israel violate these obligations," says AI, "such restrictions also in many cases constitute collective punishment - prohibited by international law.

"The construction in recent months of a wall/fence inside the West Bank has resulted in further restrictions on the movement of Palestinians, cutting tens of thousands of people from the rest of the West Bank and/or from their farming land and irrigation water."

"Israel must refrain from constructing walls/fences or other permanent structures inside the Occupied Territories which constitute or result in permanent restrictions on the free movement of Palestinians within the Occupied Territory or in the arbitrary destruction or seizure of their property," said Amnesty International.

Amnesty International also urged Israel to put an immediate end to the construction or expansion of Israeli settlements and related infrastructure and to take measures to evacuate Israeli settlers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

AI Also considers that Israel's transfer of its civilian population into the Occupied Territories is a violation of international humanitarian law and calls Israel to remedy this violation by taking concrete measures to evacuate the settlers.

"Not only are the settlements illegal, they are constructed and maintained in a discriminatory manner and are the proximate cause of so many of the arbitrary restrictions on movement and other human rights abuses."

Amnesty International reiterated its call on the Israeli authorities to put an immediate end to the practice of extrajudicial executions and other killings of civilians.

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