January 8, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 23, 1422

El KHADER (West Bank) - Nasser Hamamra’s daily commute to Bethlehem is a lesson in the ABCs of territorial divisions in the West Bank, where Israeli roadblocks restrict Palestinian travel. Most days, he leaves his car by the side of a road, walks down a slope to a field, crosses a ditch and a highway, enters the village of El Khader past Israeli soldiers and takes a taxi into Bethlehem.

Dressed neatly in suit and tie, Hamamra has been taking the roundabout route instead of driving the 5km from his home village of Husan directly to Bethlehem since a Palestinian uprising broke out in September 2000. The trek to his Bethlehem office, where he runs a society for mentally disturbed women, takes him through each of the three areas — A, B and C — delineated in a confusing patchwork pattern by interim peace deals in the West Bank.

Husan is in Area C. El Khader is in Area A, but part of the highway is in Area B. Hamamra’s destination, Bethlehem, is in Area A. The Oslo interim peace accords put Area C under full Israeli control. Palestinians have civil powers in area B, but Israel has overall security control there. The Palestinians officially have full security and civil authority only in Area A.

So Palestinians can be stopped at checkpoints not only on the Green Line dividing the West Bank from Israel, but at any point on the seams of area A, B and C. “It resembles an abstract painting, not a country,” a Palestinian humorist once wrote about the West Bank map dotted with different coloured blotches designating the three areas.

The ABC concept was meant to open the way for the gradual transfer of more Israeli-occupied land to Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority as trust developed between the two sides. Instead it created more room for friction. Now the lines between the areas have been blurred by Israeli incursions during the uprising and the tightening of blockades of Palestinian towns and villages following attacks fighters mounted against Israelis.

“In the fight against terror there are no A,B or C areas. We don’t distinguish between the colours on the map; brown, yellow or white. For the purpose of making war on terrorism we are colour-blind,” a senior Israeli officer told Army Radio.

Israeli warning signs, armed checkpoints and cement blocks mark crossing points or seal borders between one area and another across the West Bank and Gaza, choking off traffic between Palestinian communities. A 2m high cement wall looms in front of a sign saying “Welcome to Beit Jala,” at an entrance to the mainly Christian village near Bethlehem.

Israel sealed the entrance after incidents in which Palestinian gunmen fired from Beit Jala at the Jewish settlement of Gilo, which Israel regards as a neighbourhood of Al Quds. Access to Beit Jala is now only through Bethlehem — but access to Bethlehem itself is restricted. Israelis call the restrictions on freedom of movement a security measure. Palestinians describe the measures as collective punishment.

“This shows what Oslo is really about,” said Hamamra as he carried one woman’s baby over a ditch, took a heavy shopping basket up a hill and greeted old men and children on their way to school. A community was on the march and it was angry. “Fortunately today is sunny. When it rains it is awful,” said Hamamra. He was a member of the Hamas, was one of 415 activists expelled by Israel to Lebanon in December 1992, following an attack on an Israeli policeman.

Hamamra found himself by a roadside, on the edge of Israel’s occupation zone in south Lebanon, where he was told by Israeli forces to start walking north. He stopped when Lebanese troops blocked the group, which set up camp on the Marj-az-Zohour hill in a no-man’s land between an Israeli and a Lebanese checkpoint. When he returned a year later, Hamamra found that Israel had made peace with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and new internal boundaries had been set in the West Bank.—Reuters