taken into account. In addition to time and distance, the economic toll for
each journey in one private vehicle travel is estimated at between 42 and
47.6 NIS, which adds to a total additional annual burden on the Palestinian
economy of 54.7 million USD per year.202
“I know of Christian families in al-Zababda, a Greek Orthodox town near
Jenin, who, for example, have struggled to reach Bethlehem, just 85 km away,
for Christmas pilgrimage because of delays at the Za’tara and Container
checkpoints. Meanwhile, foreign pilgrims can enter Bethlehem via eight
different routes, including via Jerusalem, and on certain days can probably fly
in from abroad and get there faster than Palestinian Christians.”203
“One day, the checkpoint was extremely crowded, with vehicles stretching
along the road for hundreds of meters on both sides. The reason, as it turned
out, was an Israeli soldier taking a selfie, who later commented that he was able
to stop hundreds of Palestinians, alone, with just one signal.”204
“Another incident that was witnessed by a passenger, saw a male and female
[Israeli] soldiers force one [Palestinian] occupant out of a carload of 4, take
him to the side where there were no security cameras, and beat him for
entertainment purposes.”205
Annexation of the Jerusalem-Hebron Road (Route 60): Controlling
access to the South of the West Bank
With Bethlehem and its Palestinian population fragmented from Jerusalem
and isolated from Palestinian cities and communities in the north, Hebron is
the last remaining major economic connection available to it. Although the
202 Jad Isaac et al., The Economic Cost of the Israeli Occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories
(ARIJ, 2015), 26, available at: https://www.arij.org/files/arijadmin/2016/The_Economic_Cost_of_
the_Israeli_occupation_Report_upd.pdf
203 Abukhater, supra 200.
204 Fadi al-Asa, “Wadi Nar and the Container - Stories from the Womb of Abuse of the Palestinians”
[Arabic], Aljazeera, 4 December 2018, available at: https://bit.ly/31LxIy1 [accessed 27 September
2019].
205 Ibid.
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