Palestinian freedom of movement
In 1972, general exit orders were issued allowing residents of those territories to move freely between the West Bank, Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Comprehensive closures following the outbreak of the Second Intifada resulted in a few months of almost complete prohibition on Palestinian movement into Israel and between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
As of July 2009, Israeli authorities reported that 27 checkpoints and 140 roadblocks had been removed in order to ease security restrictions in the West Bank.
Under the permanent closure policy, residents of Gaza required a personal exit permit to travel within Israel or the West Bank.
[16] Israeli rights group B'Tselem called the checkpoints and physical roadblocks set up in the West Bank illegal and a collective punishment.
According to B'Tselem, the original purpose of response to "specific security threats" has also become to facilitate the safe passage of settlers on roads that are restricted to Palestinians.
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.
[5] Most of the checkpoints are used by Israel to control the internal movements of Palestinians with the stated aim of enhancing the security of Israelis and preventing those who wish to do harm from crossing.
[3] Figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), state that there has been an average of 65 random checkpoints in the West Bank each week between September 2008 and the end of March 2009.
[5] The Israel Defense Forces' Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Dr. Menachem Finkelstein released a statement to the Knesset Constitution, Justice and Law Committee in which he reported that there were many complaints about the troops manning the checkpoints abusing and humiliating Palestinians.
[19] An Israeli soldier was removed from duty and imprisoned for two weeks for refusing the passage of a pregnant Palestinian woman in labour.
The IDF has stated that during 2008, it had removed the crossing joins, 140 roadblocks and eight central checkpoints "in an effort to improve freedom of movement for the civilian Palestinian population in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley".
[7] Indeed, between April 2009 and the end of March 2010, the IDF implemented a series of measures that improved the freedom of movement, including the removal of obstacles.
Travelling between these regions is difficult and an exceptional occurrence, requiring a justification for officials, a great deal of time and sometimes substantial expense.
[5] In 2007, B'Tselem counted some 312 kilometers of main road in the West Bank that were forbidden or restricted to cars with Palestinian number plates.
[5][30] In 2004, Israel proposed the building of a separate road network in the West Bank for the Palestinians parallel to the main highways, to be paid for by the donor countries.
Under the Oslo Accords, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are recognized "as a single territorial unit, whose integrity will be preserved during the interim period".
[40] In 2013, an advanced container scanner was built at the Kerem Shalom crossing to enable the resumption of imports to and exports from Gaza, while addressing Israel's security concerns.
[44] Pending the Permanent Status Negotiations, on 5 October 1999, Israel and the PLO signed a protocol to establish a temporary "safe passage" subject to Israeli control.
[13] After the end of the Intifada, in November 2005, Israel and the PA signed the Agreement on Movement and Access, which also provided for the re-establishment of a safe passage,[46] which never materialized.
Only people with Palestinian ID, or foreign nationals, by exception, in certain categories, subject to Israeli oversight, were permitted to cross in and out.
Following the takeover, Egypt and Israel largely sealed their border crossings with Gaza, on the grounds that Fatah had fled and was no longer providing security on the Palestinian side.
[32] Israel has considerably limited the fishing zone along the coast of Gaza, preventing Palestinians access to 85% of the maritime areas allotted to them in the 1994 Gaza–Jericho Agreement.
Obtaining the permits is difficult, requiring medical documents testifying to the illness as well as confirmation that the hospital is the only facility where the treatment is available and the time and date of the appointment.
Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank have difficulty functioning due to the delays on the arrival of doctors and staff as a result of the movement restrictions.
[33] According to program director Colonel Triber Bezalel, the IDF employs humanitarian officers at various checkpoints: "[to] provide an understanding, helping hand to the Palestinians.
To assist women who are holding babies and children, aid the elderly and sick and provide an open ear to Palestinian professionals who have special problems.
[53]Obtaining medical treatment is particularly problematic for pregnant Palestinian women about to give birth, since the delivery date is largely unpredictable yet the permits given are only valid for one or two days, as is the case for most sick persons.
[32] According to B'Tselem, the checkpoints and restrictions within the West Bank make it difficult for Palestinians to commute to their places of employment and for goods to be transported to where they are needed.
[32] A World Bank report concludes: "As long as Israeli restrictions to access to land and water resources and movement are in place, and the majority of the West Bank remains to a large degree inaccessible for Palestinian economic investment, and the investment climate will remain unfavorable and business opportunities much below potential".
