at all.168 Israel then began enforcing this with rudimentary checkpoints
that eventually became more comprehensive and extensive. In 2005, one
of these transformed into the Checkpoint 300 terminal.169 Located on the
Jerusalem-Hebron Road, this is now the only entrance for most Palestinians
seeking to access Jerusalem from the Bethlehem area and amounts
to a total fragmentation between the two cities. Most Palestinians are
required to walk through the checkpoint, which at peak times can take
hours to cross, and is both humiliating and stressful; others are able to
cross with specific permits for their Israeli-registered cars.170 The other
four Green Line checkpoints in the Bethlehem governorate providing
access to Jerusalem are accessible only to colonizers, Palestinians
holding Israeli citizenship, Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem and
internationals.171
•
No commercial checkpoint in/near Bethlehem: There are now only
six intercity commercial checkpoints through which Palestinians can
transport goods and produce into and out of the West Bank.172 For
Bethlehem, the closest is Tarqoumia in the Hebron governorate,
approximately a 45-minute drive down south and away from Jerusalem.173
It takes up to a whole day to transport one container from Bethlehem,
to Hebron and then inside the Green Line, at an exceptionally high cost.174
The additional time and costs involved in the transportation of goods
to Jerusalem are considerable, and leaves Bethlehem largely unable to
compete with many other towns and markets.
168 Until the end of the 1980’s, only a very small percentage of the Palestinian population was restricted
in travelling into 1948 lands, including Jerusalem, from the West Bank. There are indications that
more than a hundred thousand Palestinians commuted to work in Israel daily, even in West Bank
licensed cars. After the Oslo period and the First Intifada however, Israel began imposing their highly
restrictive permit regime, severely impeding on Palestinians freedom of movement, both to Israel,
and within the West Bank itself and Gaza. Khalidi, supra 166, 201-202.
169 Alexandra Rijke and Claudio Minca, “Checkpoint 300: Precarious Checkpoint Geographies and Rights/
Rites of Passage in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” Political Geographies, no. 65 (July 2018), 38.
170 Id., 35-45.
171 Maryam Griffin, ‘’West Bank Public Transportation: Movement as Politics’’ (PhD Thesis, University of
California, Santa Barbara, 2003), 123-124.
172 B’Tselem, “List of Military Checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” webpage, 25 September
2019, available at: https://www.btselem.org/freedom_of_movement/checkpoints_and_forbidden_
roads [accessed 28 February 2020].
173 The distance from Bethlehem to Jerusalem is only 7 km, so it would have taken on average 15-20
minutes at most in a vehicle and 30 minutes or so via public transport. The fragmentation of Jerusalem
blocked the majority of commercial vehicles from travelling to Jerusalem (and 1948 Palestine) directly
from Bethlehem, now forcing them to take the longer route from Bethlehem to Tarqoumia, back up to
the Green Line. See Jaber, supra 117; See also Samir Hazboun, Board Chairman, Bethlehem Chamber
of Commerce and Industry, interview conducted by BADIL, 28 November 2019.
174 Hazboun, Ibid.
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