Restriction of movement barely eased in West Bank: Israeli paper

No significant change had been made on the restriction of movement of the Palestinians in the West Bank, the Ha'aretz daily reported on Thursday.

Israel had made it only marginally easier for Palestinians to get through roadblocks in the West Bank, and in many cases, no changes had been made at all, the report said.

The newspaper examined roadblocks in Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah and Nablus areas, where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said restrictions had been eased, only to find out that slight changes were made to make life easier for the people living in the areas. At other roadblocks, no changes had been made at all.

The insignificant improvements fail to meet the commitment Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made to Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in Jerusalem last month.

Some of the roadblocks, where the IDF said improvements were made, had not been manned prior to the Olmert-Abbas meeting. The IDF also added portable roadblocks in a few areas, which made the improvements in permanent roadblocks irrelevant, the report said.

During a meeting with Abbas last month, Olmert agreed to take a series of steps to improve the Israel-Palestinian situation, which included transfer of frozen tax revenues and lifting roadblocks in the West Bank to improve the life of the Palestinians.

Roadblocks, which Israel says are necessary security measures, have stifled the Palestinian economy.

Source: Xinhua