Israel pledges to remove West Bank roadblocks

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

JERUSALEM, Israel - Israel and the Palestinians agreed Sunday to a series of "concrete steps" aimed at paving the way for a final peace agreement later this year, beginning with Israel's pledge to remove some West Bank roadblocks.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting the region for the second time this month in hopes of energize faltering talks, said the moves "constitute a very good start to improving" a Palestinian economy crippled by the Israeli restrictions.

Under the plan that Rice announced, Israel will remove about 50 roadblocks, upgrade checkpoints to speed up the movement of Palestinians through the West Bank and give Palestinians more security responsibility in the town of Jenin with an eye toward looking at "other areas in turn."

The Israelis also pledged to increase the number of travel and work permits it gives Palestinians and to support economic projects in Palestinian towns.

In return, the Palestinians promised to improve policing of Jenin "to provide law and order, and work to prevent terror," according to a State Department statement released shortly before Rice spoke.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad consented to the steps at a joint meeting with Rice earlier Sunday. They agreed to pursue the measures with "special, immediate emphasis and work," the statement said.

"We've been told that this is going to start and, hopefully even be completed in a relatively short period of time," Rice told reporters. "I am expecting it to happen very, very soon."

"We will be monitoring and verifying," she added.

The agreement includes:

* Removing 50 travel barriers in and around Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya and Ramallah.

* Dismantling of one permanent roadblock.

* Deploying 700 Jordanian-trained Palestinian police in Jenin and allowing them to take delivery of armored vehicles.

* Raising the the number of Palestinian businessmen allowed into Israel to 1,500 from 1,000.

* Increasing the number of work permits for Palestinian laborers by 5,000 from its current number of 18,500.

* Building new housing for Palestinians in 25 villages.

* Connecting Palestinian villages to the Israeli power grid.

* Israeli support for large-scale economic development programs and encouragement of foreign investment.

Neither Barak nor Fayyad commented on the developments when they appeared at a brief photo opportunity with Rice after their meeting.

One Palestinian official said he welcomed any improvement, but that Israel's moves were "too little, too late."

"We want Israel to move quickly in removing these obstacles that make no sense and make the lives of the Palestinians difficult," said Samir Abdullah, the Palestinian planning minister.

Israel maintains hundreds of checkpoints, roadblocks and other travel restrictions in the West Bank, and says they are needed to stop suicide bombers. The Palestinians say the restrictions are excessive and have stifled their economy. They have made removal of the checkpoints a priority as the two sides, with U.S. backing, try to negotiate a peace agreement by year's end.

Rice had said she was looking for "meaningful" steps to put in place the stalled U.S.-supported plan that envisions the creation of an independent Palestinian state through concessions on both sides.

"There has not been enough momentum," she said. "This is a start in terms of delivering on some of those obligations."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23858908

Edited March 30, 2008 by LuckyStrike

[mawilson 2,133]

It's amazing what can be achieved by simply stopping the destructive activities.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

It's amazing what can be achieved by simply stopping the destructive activities.

Hopefully Gaza is watching.

[Ban Hammer 13,637]

It's amazing what can be achieved by simply stopping the destructive activities.

Hopefully Gaza is watching.

they're too busy making more rockets.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

It's amazing what can be achieved by simply stopping the destructive activities.

Hopefully Gaza is watching.

they're too busy making more rockets.

What a shame.

Where are the Israeli haters now?

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Israel removes fewer roadblocks than promised: U.N.

Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:39am EDT

By Adam Entous

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has removed 44 roadblocks in the occupied West Bank, short of the number promised to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a United Nations agency has found.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said most of the roadblocks removed were of little or no significance.

Palestinians say Israel's network of hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks amount to collective punishment, stifle their economy and undermine support for U.S.-backed peace talks.

Israel says the barriers are needed to stop suicide bombers from reaching its cities.

OCHA, which charts the location of roadblocks in the West Bank, conducted its own field survey of the 61 obstacles that Israel said it removed earlier this month after Rice's visit.

OCHA found that 44 of the 61 obstacles had been removed, six remained and 11 could not be found, according to a preliminary report presented to Western donors, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the U.N. findings. The army announced last week the removal of 50 roadblocks plus one checkpoint, as promised to Rice. It subsequently said an additional 10 barriers were taken down, but the army would not disclose their locations publicly.

Of the 44 obstacles that OCHA confirmed as having been removed, five were classified by the U.N. agency as "significant" for Palestinians in the area.

OCHA said nine of the 44 were of "minimal significance" to Palestinians, noting there was another roadblock nearby or that the obstacle blocked an unpopulated area used by the Israeli army.

OCHA said 17 of the 44 roadblocks were of "no significance", either because they obstructed a closed military zone, had already been removed, were located near a Jewish settlement or were in the middle of a field.

OCHA cited 13 "questionable circumstances". In those cases, the agency visited the sites where it received repeated reports that obstacles were added at the last minute and then removed.

A U.S. general has been tasked with monitoring whether the roadblocks were removed as promised, but his findings have not been made public.

Rice said during her recent visit that she would push hard to ease West Bank restrictions to try to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the West Bank since Hamas Islamists seized the Gaza Strip in June.

But Israel's army and defense establishment have put up stiff resistance to making sweeping changes to the roadblock network, citing security concerns.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/i...lBrandChannel=0

These checkpoints are *not* between Israel and the West Bank, but inside the West Bank itself, separating Palestinian towns and cities from other Palestinian towns and cities, separating people from their jobs, children from their schools, and patients from their hospitals. And checkpoints are just a few of the restrictions that Palestinians are subjected to every day:

Ongoing prohibitions:

* Palestinians from the Gaza Strip are forbidden to stay in the West Bank.

* Palestinians without a Jerusalem ID or special permit are forbidden to enter Jerusalem.

* West Bank Palestinians are forbidden to enter the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing.

* Palestinians are forbidden to enter the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank.

* Palestinians are forbidden to enter villages, lands, towns, and neighborhoods -- even their own homes and fields -- along the "seam line" between the "separation fence" (The Wall) and the Green Line without a special permit (about 10 % of the West Bank.)

* Palestinians who are not residents of the villages of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan in the Nablus area, and Ramadin, south of Hebron, are forbidden entry to those villages.

* Palestinians are forbidden to enter the illegal Israeli settlement areas in the West Bank (even if their lands are inside the settlement's built-up areas.)

* Palestinians are forbidden to enter Nablus in a vehicle.

* Palestinian residents of Jerusalem are forbidden to enter "Area A" (Palestinian towns in the West Bank.)

* Gaza Strip residents are forbidden to enter the West Bank via the King Hussein Bridge crossing (the only crossing between Jordan and the West Bank.)

* Palestinians are forbidden to travel abroad via Ben-Gurion Airport without a special permit.

* Children under age 16 are forbidden to leave Nablus without an original birth certificate and parental escort.

* Palestinians with permits to enter Israel are forbidden to enter through the crossings used by Israelis and tourists.

* Gaza residents are forbidden to establish residency in the West Bank.

* West Bank residents are forbidden to establish residency in the Jordan Valley, seam-line communities, or the villages of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan.

* Palestinians are forbidden to transfer merchandise and cargo through internal West Bank checkpoints.

Periodic prohibitions (any time the Israeli military declares them, which is often):

* Residents of certain parts of the West Bank are forbidden to travel to the rest of the West Bank.

* Entire towns and cities are placed under military curfew, meaning that all residents are forbidden to go out into the street -- often for weeks and months on end. Residents are permitted outside for only a few hours a week in order to buy food and supplies, on no set schedule, with no advance notification, and entirely at the discretion of the Israeli military.

* People of a certain age group -- often men from the ages of 15 to 45 -- are forbidden to leave the areas where they reside.

* Passenger buses, taxis and private cars are forbidden from crossing through checkpoints -- persons wishing to pass must cross on foot, and (when possible) catch another ride on the other side. They must repeat the process at each checkpoint -- sometimes 5 or 10 times during what would normally be a 1-hour drive.

[Ban Hammer 13,637]

well at least they have a grip on illegals.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

well at least they have a grip on illegals.

[Heracles 417]

...

Have ever had a look at the website I have attached towards the bottom of my signature.

Interesting to see compared to the absolute BS! the middle east has been feeding us for years. And I am not even Jewish..

Edited April 13, 2008 by Boo-Yah!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

...

Have ever had a look at the website I have attached towards the bottom of my signature.

Interesting to see compared to the absolute BS! the middle east has been feeding us for years. And I am not even Jewish..

noted. thanks for the truth

[Heracles 417]

...

Have ever had a look at the website I have attached towards the bottom of my signature.

Interesting to see compared to the absolute BS! the middle east has been feeding us for years. And I am not even Jewish..

noted. thanks for the truth

I found that by accident. After I watched it all I thought what a bunch of stereotypical middle eastern propaganda we have been feed over the years about Palestine being an independent nation and being stolen by the British / Israel. The fact is that if their "Arab brothers" really cared about them they would have given them land by now.

Edited April 13, 2008 by Boo-Yah!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I challenge WoM to watch it.

http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/

[Ban Hammer 13,637]

I challenge WoM to watch it.

http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/

oh i'm sure that too will turn out to be a zionist plot/site.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

...

Have ever had a look at the website I have attached towards the bottom of my signature.

Interesting to see compared to the absolute BS! the middle east has been feeding us for years. And I am not even Jewish..

noted. thanks for the truth

I found that by accident. After I watched it all I thought what a bunch of stereotypical middle eastern propaganda we have been feed over the years about Palestine being an independent nation and being stolen by the British / Israel. The fact is that if their "Arab brothers" really cared about them they would have given them land by now.

Ah yes. Another "project" from David Horowitz and Front Page Magazine. Actually, I am very familiar with his hate sites, which have already been linked on this forum, and I've already discussed them.

Basically, Horowitz is a former Marxist turned right-wing extremist who now operates a number of different groups and websites, all dedicated to promoting imperialist neocon and Zionist agendas, demonizing Muslims/Arabs and the religion of Islam in general, and smearing anyone who disagrees with him as "anti-American," "terror sympathizers," etc. (Gee doesn't that sound familiar )

Horowitz and fellow Islamophobic idealogue Daniel Pipes co-founded the notorious Campus Watch, which uses McCarthy-era tactics to intimidate and silence critics. It publishes a "blacklist" of college professors and academics who do not support their promoted "culture of impunity" in regard to Israeli government policies, and actively campaigns to get them ousted from their positions.

Horowitz has a penchant for incredibly vicious "stunts." While speaking at Columbia University on the importance of what he called "ideological diversity," he passed out a pamphlet with a picture of Noam Chomsky with a turban and a beard, under the heading "The Ayatollah of Anti-American Hate."

All his "projects" are staffed with hate-mongers. Horowitz hired Ann Coulter for Front Page Magazine after she got fired from The National Review for her nasty remarks about the 9/11 widows, defending her vitriol as "right on the mark," and calling her "a national treasure."

Horowitz is also behind Discover The Network, which uses the same Campus Watch tactics to monitor (and denigrate) accused "leftists," branding them as "jihadists" and "pro-terrorists."

And Horowitz founded the innocuously-named Students for Academic Freedom (even though he isn't a student and hasn't been one since the early 1960s,) which campaigns to make college campuses more "conservative." He has pushed for legislation that would shift control of college course material away from the colleges and academic experts themselves, and into the jurisdiction of state governments and courts.

He has a number of other "projects" as well, all along the same lines.

Try this instead:

Jews For Justice in the Middle East

http://www.wrmea.com/jews_for_justice/index.html

Now, shall we return to the topic ? (the removal of checkpoints, as promised to Condoleezza Rice)

[simple_male 1]

...

Have ever had a look at the website I have attached towards the bottom of my signature.

Interesting to see compared to the absolute BS! the middle east has been feeding us for years. And I am not even Jewish..

noted. thanks for the truth

I found that by accident. After I watched it all I thought what a bunch of stereotypical middle eastern propaganda we have been feed over the years about Palestine being an independent nation and being stolen by the British / Israel. The fact is that if their "Arab brothers" really cared about them they would have given them land by now.

Ah yes. Another "project" from David Horowitz and Front Page Magazine. Actually, I am very familiar with his hate sites, which have already been linked on this forum, and I've already discussed them.

Basically, Horowitz is a former Marxist turned right-wing extremist who now operates a number of different groups and websites, all dedicated to promoting imperialist neocon and Zionist agendas, demonizing Muslims/Arabs and the religion of Islam in general, and smearing anyone who disagrees with him as "anti-American," "terror sympathizers," etc. (Gee doesn't that sound familiar )

Horowitz and fellow Islamophobic idealogue Daniel Pipes co-founded the notorious Campus Watch, which uses McCarthy-era tactics to intimidate and silence critics. It publishes a "blacklist" of college professors and academics who do not support their promoted "culture of impunity" in regard to Israeli government policies, and actively campaigns to get them ousted from their positions.

Horowitz has a penchant for incredibly vicious "stunts." While speaking at Columbia University on the importance of what he called "ideological diversity," he passed out a pamphlet with a picture of Noam Chomsky with a turban and a beard, under the heading "The Ayatollah of Anti-American Hate."

All his "projects" are staffed with hate-mongers. Horowitz hired Ann Coulter for Front Page Magazine after she got fired from The National Review for her nasty remarks about the 9/11 widows, defending her vitriol as "right on the mark," and calling her "a national treasure."

Horowitz is also behind Discover The Network, which uses the same Campus Watch tactics to monitor (and denigrate) accused "leftists," branding them as "jihadists" and "pro-terrorists."

And Horowitz founded the innocuously-named Students for Academic Freedom (even though he isn't a student and hasn't been one since the early 1960s,) which campaigns to make college campuses more "conservative." He has pushed for legislation that would shift control of college course material away from the colleges and academic experts themselves, and into the jurisdiction of state governments and courts.

He has a number of other "projects" as well, all along the same lines.

Try this instead:

Jews For Justice in the Middle East

http://www.wrmea.com/jews_for_justice/index.html

Now, shall we return to the topic ? (the removal of checkpoints, as promised to Condoleezza Rice)

Why do we have to talk about hateful websites? If one wants to talk about hateful sites, why does that person not open a specific thread about it? The thread is about removing the westbank roadblocks. But what do the hate sites (designed to demonize Arabs and Muslims and the religion of Islam) have to do with removing west bank road blocks?

There are Jews who are against occupation. Here is a link and of course, it is not designed to spread hatred:

http://www.jatonyc.org/