Video from 2011 shows how Israeli soldiers treat Palestinians at checkpoints.
An Israeli checkpoint is a barrier erected by the Israeli Defence Forces with the stated aim of enhancing the security of Israel and Israeli settlements and preventing those who wish to do harm from crossing.
Since the 1990s Israel has created hundreds of permanent roadblocks and checkpoints staffed by Israeli military or border police.
The UN has said there are 522 roadblocks and checkpoints obstructing Palestinian movement in the West Bank. That number does not include the temporary checkpoints known as “flying checkpoints,” of which there were 495 on average per month in the West Bank in 2011, up from 351 on average per month in the previous two years.
The IDF says it employs humanitarian officers at various checkpoints, which are responsible to make life easier for those who cross the borders and aid the elderly and sick.
But many Palestinian residents of the West Bank claim that despite the checkpoints’ intended use, in practice they violate Palestinians’ rights to transportation and other human rights. Palestinian complaints of abuse and humiliation are common.
The UN in its February 2009 Humanitarian Monitor report, stated that it is becoming “apparent” that the checkpoint and obstacles, which Israeli authorities justified from the beginning of the second Intifada (September 2000) as a temporary military response to violent confrontations and attacks on Israeli civilians, are evolving into “a more permanent system of control” that is steadily reducing the space available for Palestinian growth and movement for the benefit of the increasing Israeli settler population.
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!
