Israel's army has turned major West Bank towns into veritable detention centres. Khaled Amayreh reports from Hebron Israel this week divided the West Bank into eight areas that are cut off from each other and virtually isolated from the rest of the outside world. The areas centre around each of Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jericho, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and Qalqilya. Under these latest measures, Palestinians wanting to travel outside of the area in which they reside will have to obtain special freedom-of-movement permits from Israeli domestic intelligence, the Shin Beit. The immediate purpose of the measures appears to make daily life even more difficult for the Palestinian population. However, the ultimate goal of dividing the West Bank into veritable Bantustans seems to effect what one Israeli official recently termed "a quiet transfer", or mass exodus by Palestinians from their homeland by making life for them so unbearable that they want to leave. The measures are expected to further damage the Palestinian economy and paralyse all aspects of life in the West Bank. Education, in particular, will be further hampered by this new system as many students and teachers attend or work at schools and colleges that are outside of the area in which they reside. Palestinian officials castigated the "apartheid arrangements", calling on the international community to exert pressure on the Israeli government to respect the humanity of the Palestinian people. "Is this the penultimate step before the appearance of actual concentration camps? Should the world wait until this happens?" asked Yaacoub Shahin, a Palestinian Authority (PA) spokesman in Bethlehem. "Their goal is simply to make life so difficult for the average Palestinian citizen that he will be forced to contemplate immigrating from his homeland," said Shahin. "I assure you that this won't happen, because this is our motherland." Protesting the cantonisation of the West Bank, the PA has asked the European Union (EU) to pressure Israel to reconsider the measures. EU representatives in the West Bank have reportedly briefed their respective governments about the new situation and are awaiting responses. Israel initiated its efforts to reduce Palestinian towns and cities to virtual detention centres alongside the ongoing policy of killing Palestinian civilians, many of whom were struck down while en route to or returning from work. This week, the Israeli army killed at least eight Palestinians, including a seven-year-old child, two young boys, a housewife and a medical doctor. On 15 May, Israeli tanks fired indiscriminately on civilian homes at Dir Al-Balah, south of Gaza, killing 16-year-old Mohsen Al-Atrash while inside his home. Two days later, in a classic case of adding insult to injury, the Israeli army re-entered Jenin, including the devastated Jenin refugee camp, apparently to terrorise civilians. At the camp, where the Israeli army massacred scores of civilians last month, troops encircled the home of Hamas guerilla Jamal Abu Al-Haija. When they found that Abu Al-Haija was not there, they tossed scores of fire bombs into the house, destroying its interior and setting it on fire. A few hours later, a bomb planted by the Israeli army went off at the camp, killing 16-year-old Murad Abdel-Hakim Al- Ghoul and injuring two of his peers. Palestinian sources said the Israeli army deliberately left hundreds of unexploded bombs at the camp. That same day, Israeli soldiers riding in an armoured personnel carrier at the Askar refugee camp shot and killed Amid Abu Sir, a seven-year-old child who was walking with his father to the nearby mosque for Friday prayers. The army said it was investigating the "incident". A few hours later, another Palestinian civilian, an Israeli- Arab woman, was gunned down as she approached an army checkpoint near Tulkarm. Again, the army said it was investigating. The following day, trigger-happy soldiers manning a roadblock shot and killed Moussa Zahayka, a medical doctor, as he was leaving the village of Beit Ummar, just north of Hebron, on his way back home to Jerusalem. The Israeli army claimed that Zahayka's car looked suspicious and that soldiers acted in accordance with standing orders. The shocking frequency of such incidents prompted Israeli opposition leader Yossi Sarid to say, "It is not enough to issue apologies, instead soldiers must exercise caution." Meanwhile, much of the Israeli media continued to uncritically report the army and government line on the incidents. Israeli television routinely says that the almost daily killings "happened by mistake". Such an explanation is almost invariably accompanied by the statement that the soldiers "acted as they should in such circumstances." Referring to the Palestinian child murdered at the Askar refugee camp near Nablus, The Jerusalem Post wrote, "A Palestinian boy was killed near Nablus when a tank fired in his direction." What does the phrase "a tank fired in his direction" mean or imply other than that Israeli forces shot the boy deliberately or at least knowingly? Not surprisingly, the almost daily killing of innocent Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army elicited a response from armed Palestinians organisations. On 19 May, a Palestinian guerilla from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who had strapped explosives to his body, blew himself up at the vegetable market in the heart of the seaside Israeli town of Netanya, north of Tel Aviv. The blast killed three Israelis and injured 20 others. A similar operation was reportedly thwarted on 20 May.
