Under Barak, Isolation of Bantustans, Separation of West Bank Palestinians From Jerusalem Continues

By Matthew Brubacher

Although Ehud Barak’s initial overtures to Washington quickly made him the hero of the resurrected peace process, events on the ground and the discovery of new Israeli plans show quite another face of the newly elected Israeli prime minister. According to revelations by officials at the Palestinian District Cooperating Office (DCO) in Bethlehem, the main Palestinian liaison office with the Israeli Ministry of Civil Affairs, Israel plans to construct a new “Erez style” checkpoint in Bethlehem, ostensibly to “facilitate” the movement of tourists there. The numbers of visitors to the Holy Land are expected to reach the millions in connection with the beginning of a new millennium but there are concerns that the Israeli government is working to keep the number of those who cross into territory administered by the Palestinian Authority, like Bethlehem, as low as possible.

According to the Israeli map, which incensed employees hung on a wall of the DCO office for public display, Israel plans to use renovations to the Hebron Road, the main artery to and from Jerusalem, to consolidate its hold on Jerusalem. The map calls for the transformation of the current Bethlehem checkpoint into a permanent crossing to be used by tourists, Jewish settlers and VIPs.

The only alternative, for Palestinians will be a parallel road complete with a 700-car parking lot and a 650-meter cattle ramp-style walking strip, euphemistically labeled “Pedestrian Road,” leading to the new “Pedestrian Terminal,” which is strikingly similar to the one used at the infamous Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

According to Palestinian sources, although it was given to the DCO office only two months ago, the map itself is more than a year old. The fact that the map is only now becoming public knowledge leaves unanswered many questions as to the process of negotiating final status on the ground. Especially when it is commonly accepted that this plan was in the hands of the Palestinian Authority well before it was put on the table of the DCO. Why the secrecy?

In a recent interview, the Palestinian minister of civil affairs and head of the DCO, Dr. Jamiil al-Tariffii, said he suspended the entire project of restoring the Hebron Road last month until the Israeli government gave the Palestinian Authority written permission to renovate the road. However, despite Tariffii’s resolve, his decision had yet to reach the DCO office itself. Meanwhile, it is clear that Israeli-authorized construction in the area during the past year has been in careful conformance with the map’s design.

Several months ago, a Palestinian entrepreneur built a large parking lot with no apparent clientele in the area. While the mayor of Bethlehem, Dr. Hana Nasser, denies that the entrepreneur was given a permit to operate the lot because of its role in the Israeli plan, the fact that the lot now fits perfectly into the map’s design shows a certain level of collaboration by persons in the Palestinian Authority. Other recent construction includes a reinforcement wall installed around the existing Jerusalem checkpoint and the foundation for the receptacle road to be used after Palestinian workers exit the new checkpoint. Palestinian surveyors say that with the present infrastructure, the plan could become reality in less than a month.

“The checkpoint is killing the economy in Bethlehem.”

The new plans and the current Israeli construction could not come at a worse time for officials of the Bethlehem 2000 Project, who are rushing to prepare for the millennium celebrations in the Holy Land. “The checkpoint is killing the economy in Bethlehem,” says Mayor Nasser. “The measures are not here for security but for politically splitting the southern West Bank from the north. Under the guise of fixing the road, [the Israelis] wish to redefine the Jerusalem border.”

Israeli authorities reject these claims, saying the physical changes “have no political significance whatsoever.” The Israeli Ministry of Tourism also says there is no intention to build another Erez-style checkpoint, through which Palestinian workers must routinely pass twice a day to travel between their homes in Palestinian territory and jobs in Israel.

According to Salah Taamari, who represents Bethlehem in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), it is not a question of the map but of Israeli aims. “The Israeli settlements cut us off from all directions,” he explains. “There is no room left for Bethlehem to grow naturally.”

According to estimates by the Arabic daily al-Ayyam, if the Jerusalem municipal boundary line were to shift as indicated on the map, an additional 4,500 dunums of land, or roughly one-third of Bethlehem, would be lost to the Palestinians.

More Facts on the Ground

“The map is one of the most significant Israeli steps toward dividing the Palestinian population and land,” said Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, director of the Palestinian Center for Global Exchange and Democracy. “It is another attempt by the Israelis to put facts on the ground.”

PLC sources indicate that if the Israeli construction does not stop, clashes are likely to follow. Although Bethlehem 2000 spokesperson Walid Tuqan refused to comment on the implications of the Israeli plans or the possibility of clashes, the effect of political instability on the tourist industry is obvious.

While the possibility of the creation of an Erez checkpoint in Bethlehem is raising concern in the general Palestinian public, the flash point likely will be at Rachel’s Tomb, also located on the Hebron Road inside Bethlehem. Palestinians negotiating the Oslo accords guaranteed Israelis free and secure access to Jewish holy sites. But Rachel’s Tomb, like Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, has become a source of serious friction.

In 1996, when Israel built a permanent security wall and guard towers around Rachel’s Tomb, several Palestinians died in the ensuing clashes. Now, construction has begun again.

According to Palestinian surveyors, the Israelis are in the process of building a tunnel underneath the Hebron Road to connect Rachel’s Tomb with the guarded parking lot and the military base on the other side. The underground tunnel would presumably be used to reinforce the Israeli outpost, which could then be used as the frontier outpost of the municipal border. Rachel’s Tomb, known to Palestinians as the Mosque of Bilal, was closed to Muslims in 1996.

With the priority construction of bypass roads running along the municipal boundary line and the expansion of Jewish settlements from all sides, the prospects for a durable peace steadily decline. Instead Palestinians are being compressed into small, isolated enclaves and cut off from access to Jerusalem and its Muslim and Christian holy sites.

Although the seeming reasonableness of the new Labor prime minister may soften Israel’s image in the Western media, his policies, as distinguished from his public relations, do not differ significantly from those of his predecessors. If he has his way, Israel will continue creating for the 21st century little more than a more efficient system of 20th century apartheid.

Matthew Brubacher is a free-lance writer based in Jerusalem.