Palestinians living in Israel will be able to access the northern West Bank city of Qalqiliya through the Eyal checkpoint ten years since it was closed by Israeli authorities, officials in Qalqiliya told Ma'an on Sunday.Good news, right? When terror decreases, freedom of movement for Palestinian Arabs increases.
Director of civil affairs at the governor's office, Muhannad Shawar, said the decision will be put into effect by June 7.
He said it came following a request from Palestinian officials who pointed to the enormous convenience that entry through the Eyal checkpoint would bring for residents of Taybeh, al-Tirah and other towns in northern Israel with a Palestinian majority.
According to the agreement reached with the Israeli authorities, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship will be allowed to visit Qalqiliya in private vehicles between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. They are to return via checkpoint 109.
But this is a Palestinian newspaper, so they have to add some lies to keep their record consistent:
Israeli forces maintain severe restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories through a complex combination of fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, roads forbidden to Palestinians but open exclusively to Jewish settlers, and various other physical obstructions.
Car with Palestinian plates on a purportedly "Jewish-only" road (CAMERA) |
The myth of "Jewish-only roads" has been debunked quite thoroughly,here and here and here for starters.
Then comes an even bigger whopper:
The West Bank is almost entirely surrounded by the Israeli separation wall, which is more than 700km long.A separation barrier on only one side of an area is now considered to be "surrounding" it?
Just as international law is interpreted differently for Israel than for any other country, the dictionary itself is different for Israel as well.