just 7.8 percent187 of the Bethlehem governorate classified as Area A, i.e. two
disconnected urban areas of Bethlehem,188 and some small isolated village
enclaves in the surrounding areas classified as Area B (5.5 percent), Israel has
retained full control over 87 percent of the governorate and all transportation
thoroughfares between Bethlehem, its villages and other major Palestinian
cities. These classifications of the land have allowed Israel the guise of legitimacy
and the opportunity to utilize the transportation networks to enact some of its
most stringent policies which isolate Bethlehem into an enclave of inequality,
congestion and oppression.
Map of Bethlehem Governorate after Oslo (ARIJ)189
With Bethlehem severed entirely from Jerusalem, Israel has applied its
isolationist policies to the remainder of Palestinian cities and villages, with
hopes of isolating them from one another, and obstructing any continuity
that remains between them. In the case of Bethlehem, this is done by
isolating Bethlehem from Ramallah and other Palestinian cities in the north
and from Hebron in the south. In doing this, Israel is able to easily control
the movement of both people and goods coming in and out of Bethlehem,
187 In Bethlehem, 5.5 percent is classified as Area B and 7.8 percent is classified as Area A.
188 ARIJ, supra 162, 10.
189 Ibid.
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