SURDA (West Bank): Hundreds of Palestinians gathered at the Surda military checkpoint near Ramallah on Sunday morning to watch both Palestinian and Israeli bulldozers tear down the mounds of dirt and cement blocks that have sealed off the road since March 2001.

Traffic resumed for the first time in two years as cars crossed the barrier, honking their horns and churning up a suffocating amount of dust.

The reopening of Surda allows Palestinians to breathe easier, heralding the removal of more than 160 checkpoints throughout the West Bank which have paralysed the region’s economy and severely damaged Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Israel built the roadblock several months after the Palestinian intifada erupted and peace negotiations foundered. The Israeli army is now required to knock them down as one of Israel’s obligations under the international road map plan for peace.

Surda is one of ten checkpoints around Ramallah alone, but it is more vital than most as the Ramallah-Surda road leads to Bir Zeit University, the most important university in the West Bank, and 30 other Palestinian villages to the north and northwest of the besieged city.

Hanna Nasser, the president of Bir Zeit University, was glad to see the road reopen. He said the checkpoint had created great difficulties for students and staff travelling to and from the university.

People usually left their cars on either side of the kilometre- long checkpoint to walk across and he himself had to walk from his home in Bir Zeit to Ramallah. The normally 10-minute drive used to take him 30 minutes if pedestrians were let through unhindered.

“It is a good thing that this problem if over,” said Nasser, who is also chairman of the Palestinian elections committee preparing for the next general elections in the West Bank and Gaza.

Other Palestinians are more skeptical. “The Israeli army opened the checkpoint before and reclosed it,” said one. “We are not sure when they will come back and reclose it again.”

However, Ramallah governor Mustafa Issa believes that this time is different. “This is a good beginning and a positive step,” he said.

“But it will not be enough because it has to be followed by more steps in confidence building,” he said.—dpa