Photos
070 A-G
The Huwara checkpoint is located just outside Nablus,
on the main road from Jerusalem. Israeli checkpoints such as this
one pose a major obstacle to the freedom of movement for the Palestinian
population in the West Bank. Access may be granted or denied on
the whim of the soldier checking the ID. |
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| Photo 071:
Israeli tanks are all over the city. Nablus, which
in normal times is the financial capital of the West Bank, has been
under curfew for more than 100 consequtive days (primo October 2002).
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072: Nonetheless, the city's inhabitants have now
begun to break the curfew. However, doing so is by no means without
risk: only hours after the convoy had left, international monitors
in Nablus reported that two women and a four-month-old child had
barely escaped death as they managed to flee from their car when
the crew in an Israeli tank opened fire on the vehicle. A later
investigation showed that several bullets had penetrated the driver's
seat as well as the passenger seat. Two days later, also in Nablus,
fourteen-year-old Amar Jamal Rajab was killed after being shot in
the head by an Israeli soldier while throwing stones at a tank.
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073 A-E: The Israeli army has caused extensive destruction
in Nablus. According to the Israeli government, house demolishion
is used as what is referred to as a 'deterrent'.. A small number
of demolishions have thus been performed to punish the relatives
of Palestinian suicide bombers. However, since 1967, (that is, well
before the first Palestinian suicide bomb in 1994) the Israeli army
has demolished some 8000 Palestinian homes. Of these, app. 2000
have been demolished since the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada.
The practise is illegal under international law, which prohibits
collective punishment ('No one shal be punished for a crime that
he or she has not committed'). |
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