West Bank Split by Over 1,300 Checkpoints, Palestinian Leader Warns
(MENAFN) Israeli forces have carved the occupied West Bank into “fragmented prisons,” while settler violence has turned it into a “battlefield,” Palestinian National Initiative Secretary-General Mustafa Barghouti said Thursday.
In a statement, Barghouti said more than 1,300 military checkpoints, most of them closed, have split up the territory, turning its cities and towns into “fragmented prisons separated from one another.”
The restrictions, he said, had “severely paralyzed economic activity, education and health services.”
Barghouti said the crisis extends well beyond the checkpoints. He cited army raids in every West Bank governorate, mass arrests, continued repression and home demolitions. He also said most Palestinian farmers have been blocked from reaching their land to harvest olives.
“The Israeli occupation uses occupier terror gangs as a spearhead for settlement expansion,” he said.
He added that these groups keep attacking towns, villages and cities across the territory, turning it into a “battlefield where terror never stops.”
The aim of the “occupier terror war,” he said, is to drive Palestinians from most of their land and realize the “Zionist expansionist dream” of annexation, Judaization and displacement.
He said Palestinians’ steadfastness and determination to stay on their land, together with popular committees confronting settlers, were “the only factor preventing the implementation of the Israeli plan.”
The Palestinian official called on the international community to stop turning a blind eye to Israeli crimes. He urged it to back Palestinian steadfastness by imposing sanctions and a boycott on the entire occupation and settlement system, including the Israeli government.
Attacks by settlers and the army on Palestinians and their land across the West Bank have escalated during the olive harvest season.
Palestinian figures put the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, at around 750,000. They live in 194 settlements and roughly 400 outposts. Settlements built on occupied Palestinian land are considered illegal under international law.
In a statement, Barghouti said more than 1,300 military checkpoints, most of them closed, have split up the territory, turning its cities and towns into “fragmented prisons separated from one another.”
The restrictions, he said, had “severely paralyzed economic activity, education and health services.”
Barghouti said the crisis extends well beyond the checkpoints. He cited army raids in every West Bank governorate, mass arrests, continued repression and home demolitions. He also said most Palestinian farmers have been blocked from reaching their land to harvest olives.
“The Israeli occupation uses occupier terror gangs as a spearhead for settlement expansion,” he said.
He added that these groups keep attacking towns, villages and cities across the territory, turning it into a “battlefield where terror never stops.”
The aim of the “occupier terror war,” he said, is to drive Palestinians from most of their land and realize the “Zionist expansionist dream” of annexation, Judaization and displacement.
He said Palestinians’ steadfastness and determination to stay on their land, together with popular committees confronting settlers, were “the only factor preventing the implementation of the Israeli plan.”
The Palestinian official called on the international community to stop turning a blind eye to Israeli crimes. He urged it to back Palestinian steadfastness by imposing sanctions and a boycott on the entire occupation and settlement system, including the Israeli government.
Attacks by settlers and the army on Palestinians and their land across the West Bank have escalated during the olive harvest season.
Palestinian figures put the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, at around 750,000. They live in 194 settlements and roughly 400 outposts. Settlements built on occupied Palestinian land are considered illegal under international law.
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