Movement restrictions - trying to understand

Road blocked at the Tent of Nations

There are three access roads to Nahalin, in the valley south west of Bethlehem and surrounded by hilltop settlements. This is one of the access roads, which has been arbitrarily blocked by large stones by Israel. This means that people going to work and vehicles carrying fruits and vegetables have to be unloaded on one side of the barrier and picked up on the other. In the afternoon, there are groups of people sitting here waiting for a car to come out from the village to pick them up. 

Strangely, a pair of gates has been installed in the past few weeks. Part of the ongoing story of unpredictable closures.

Movement of Palestinians is restricted by a complex structure of physical and administrative barriers. Checkpoints, roadblock and the Wall form the physical barriers. The administrative barriers prohibit movement on the basis of ethnic group, age and religion. They define roads on which Palestinians may not drive - Palestinian cars have different registration plates to Israeli cars. Permits are required for Palestinians with West bank Identity Cards (Green cards) to enter Israel. Even those with permits can be denied access for security reasons, such as a Jewish holiday. Farmers who have been cut off from their land by the building of the Wall have access via an Agricultural Gate, but need to prove ownership of the land, and payment of taxes to get a permit. 

One of the big issues is that many farmer do not have formal ownership papers which precisely describe the lands (rather than as "twenty five trees"), and did not pay taxes in the Ottoman era, so this is used as an administrative obstacle to prevent them tending the land. If they do not tend the land for 3 years, it is forfeit to the (Israeli) state. So movement restrictions are associated with the land grab as well. 

There are only 6 remaining access roads into the Jordan Valley and four of these have checkpoints. Palestinians to not have access to most of this area.

There are 542 road obstacles in the West Bank - 61 checkpoints, 25 partial checkpoints, and 423 physical barriers. The Wall has further cut roads and communities.

Every town in the West Bank has a set of gates on all access roads. If there is a security issue, all these gates can be closed within 15 minutes, shutting down all movements between towns in the West Bank. 

The restrictions taken together mean that, even if there is a route between centres, it can take 2-5 times as long to travel Palestinian style, compares with an Israeli vehicle. The "Israeli only" roads form a network which means that travel by palestinian vehicle is more and more limited. 

The family I stay with have not been to Jerusalem (5 miles away) for 14 years and have never seen the sea on the West Coast. They are also not allowed to travel to the Dead Sea, or to the tourist areas on the gulf (i.e. Eilat)