December 2, 2000

The Israeli military has dug trenches alongside most roads inside the West Bank.

The blocked entrance to one of the Israeli settlements outside Jenin.

We took a shorter excursion out of Zababdeh up towards Jenin. We found things a little more interesting than we expected. Here, as in much of the West Bank, the Israeli military has strategically blocked roads, in an attempt to isolate Palestinian population centers and protect interests of settlers. In the past, we have seen roads blocked by huge cement blocks clearly marked with "A" and a warning in Hebrew, but usually these were avoidable by a little off-road driving (usually in vehicles that are not meant for such travel). However, now the roadsides have been dug up by the Israelis at every place where a car might be able to pass around the blocks through the fields. The end result is that without great difficulty cars cannot get in and out of Jenin, nearby villagers cannot get their tractors to their fields (a necessity now that planting season is here), and school buses can only go so far. All of this is for the benefit, security, and ease of travel for two illegal Israeli settlements - Ganim and Kadim - whose total populations are now somewhere around 80.

A friend of ours in the village of Taybeh said that her trip into Ramallah (where she works and her kids go to school) usually takes ten minutes. But now, it takes over an hour as they drive through fields on paths created by other people desperate to get to work, school, and goods. The word "apartheid" comes to mind.

An Israeli military jeep followed close behind us.

We were joined by an Israeli "escort" on our way back to Zababdeh in our friend's German-plated car.