Seam Zones Seam zones are sections of Palestinian land within the oPt that are located between the 1949 Armistice Line (the Green Line) and the illegal Annexation and Separation Wall and thus segregated from the rest of the West Bank. These pieces of land have been designated by Israel as closed military areas.236 As a result, these areas are extremely isolated and Palestinian access is severely restricted and subjected to an Israeli-controlled permit regime. Approximately 50,000 Palestinians live in 57 communities within these so-called seam zones, and are defined internationally as Internally Stuck Persons.237 To obtain an access permit, Palestinians are required to meet at least one of the Israeli civil administration’s qualifying criteria: ownership of a residential property within the zone, ownership of agricultural land within the zone or having a linkage to the land, or ownership of businesses located within the zone. Palestinians who do not fit one or more of these qualifications are not entitled to access seam zone land, and applications for a permit can take weeks to process. Even those who do fit the criteria can be refused entry.238 The unique situation faced by communities in the seam zones has a hugely detrimental impact on the provision of services to their residents. Israel denies seam zone communities access to Israeli municipal services while also preventing access to PA municipal services. For example, the town of Hizma, north of Jerusalem, has been split in two by the Wall, trapping one side in a seam zone. The houses within this seam zone are denied access to both water and sewage networks: the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipality is refusing to fulfill its legal responsibility to include them within their municipal service coverage while simultaneously restricting Palestinian movement and access to the point of denying the PA access to the area.239 These movement and access restrictions have been implemented in every seam zone, crippling their economies and generating growing levels of 236 OCHA oPt, West Bank Movement and Access Update, Special Focus, September 2012, 11, available at: https://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_movement_and_access_report_september_2012_ english.pdf 237 OCHA oPt, Three Years Later: The Humanitarian Impact of the Barrier Since the International Court of Justice Opinion, 1, 9 July 2007, available at: https://www.ochaopt.org/sites/default/files/opt_prot_ ocha_hum_impact_barrier_icjo_july_2007.pdf 238 BADIL, Seam Zones, Occasional Bulletin No. 25, August 2012, 4, available at: http://www.badil. org/phocadownloadpap/Badil_docs/bulletins-and-briefs/Bulletin-25.pdf [hereinafter BADIL, Seam Zones]. 239 Lena Odgaard, “Israeli Wall Creates Limbo for Seam Zone Palestinians”, Al Monitor, 2 July 2013, available at: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/07/west-bank-seam-zone-israel-wall. html [accessed 22 August 2017]. 68