In addition to the impacts Um Ali describes above, the residents suffer from a constant threat of demolition due to their proximity to this road and the potential for future expansion. Additionally, as their land has been classified as Area C, and confiscated for military purposes, Um Ali’s family remain in a permanent state of uncertainty, as they have faced demolition threats twice before from Israel, which were halted both times.221 • Military gates and checkpoints at village entrances: Bypass roads often provide a pretense for the establishment of additional security measures. Permanent Israeli military gates have recently began replacing arbitrary earth-mounds and other temporary closure mechanisms, at the entrances of villages lining these roads.222 Along the bypass roads in the Bethlehem governorate alone, there were 48 closure mechanisms as of July 2018, including 7 permanent checkpoints, 2 Green Line checkpoints, 14 partial checkpoints, 4 earth mounds, 5 roadblocks, 6 closed road gates, 9 open road gates, 1,031 meters of earth walls and 2,422 meters of road barriers.223 An increasing number are strategically placed to enable the shutdown of most villages that line these roads. While most are generally open, these barriers are regularly utilized by the Israeli military to close without notice the only access routes for many of Bethlehem’s smaller villages that connect into the main part of Bethlehem.224 Such measures are implemented regularly in the village of Marah Rabah, located 8.3 km south of Bethlehem.225 The Oslo Accords classified all of Marah Rabah’s lands as Areas B and C.226 After several years of occasionally placing roadblocks on the main entrance of the village, in 2017, Israel installed an iron gate allowing the military to regularly shut down Marah Rabah’s main entrance.227 This situation is not unique to Marah Rabah. Significantly, not one village is accessible 221 Um Ali, housewife from Za’atara village, interview conducted by BADIL, Za’atara, 4 November 2017. 222 POICA, “The Israeli Occupation Forces Set Up Iron Gate on the Southern Entrance to the Village of Marah Rabah in Bethlehem Governorate,” prepared by Land Research Center, (13 August 2017), available at: http://poica.org/2017/08/the-israeli-occupation-forces-set-up-iron-gate-onthe-southern-entrance-to-the-village-of-marah-rabah-in-bethlehem-governorate/ [accessed 28 February 2020]. 223 OCHA, Bethlehem Access Restrictions, Map of Bethlehem, July 2018, available at: https://www. ochaopt.org/content/bethlehem-access-restrictions-july-2018 [accessed 9 Avril 2020]. 224 See Mr Hussein Al-Sheikh, lawyer and resident of Marah Rabah, and head of the Village Council, in BADIL, supra 156, 111. 225 ARIJ, “Marah Rabah Village Profile” (2010), 4, available at: http://vprofile.arij.org/bethlehem/pdfs/ VP/Marah%20Rabah_vp_en.pdf. 226 Ibid. 227 POICA, supra 223. 62