Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is confined by Israel to the
tiny self-rule enclave of Ramallah. Yet he makes Palestinian
statehood sound like it is just around the corner, declaring 2002
"the year of independence and liberty."
The gap between Mr. Arafat's rhetoric and the reality of
heightened fragmentation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip territory
earmarked for the state has never been wider, say both Israeli and
Palestinian analysts. Pointing this up, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
again banned Arafat from leaving Ramallah for Bethlehem, this time
to mark yesterday's Orthodox Christmas celebrations, on the grounds
that the Palestinian Authority has not arrested alleged assassins of
Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.
And Israel's seizure Thursday of a major arms shipment it says
was headed for the Palestinian Authority has further stalled de-
escalation toward a significant easing of restrictions.
Troubles in moving around, though new for Arafat, have become all
too familiar to Palestinian civilians and civil servants.
As Jewish settlements break up the contiguity of Palestinian
areas - in some cases even expanding - there is stepped-up
construction of bypass roads. The roads, built after the 1993 Oslo
Agreement to enable settlers to skirt Palestinian Authority areas,
separate villages.
Dozens of new checkpoints
And no less of a challenge for statehood is that dozens of new
Israeli army checkpoints have been established in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, in moves the army says are aimed at thwarting attacks on
Israelis.
While Israel announced last week that it is removing some of the
barriers, Palestinians say no real change has been made and that the
announcements are a show to impress visiting US envoy Anthony Zinni.
"I don't see that it has made a real difference on the ground," says
Bassem Eid, director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring
Group.
A leading Israeli analyst of Palestinian affairs predicts that
many of the new checkpoints will become permanent. "The Palestinians
might be on the way to establishing the first virtual state," says
Hillel Frisch of the Besa Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan
University. "Virtual statehood" would include governing institutions
and international recognition, but it would lack territorial
contiguity, he says. "The Palestinians have lost the basic trust of
the Israelis, so the Israelis will do everything possible to remote-
control the state. Israel will want to slice the state up, to keep
the checkpoints."
According to Didi Remez, spokesman of the dovish Peace Now group,
which opposes settlement construction, an "extremely significant"
number of bypass and military roads have been created since the
start of the uprising on land seized from Palestinians. A new map
issued by the PA's Palestinian Geographic Center, shows 78 new
checkpoints.
Jacob Dallal, an army spokes-man, says the checkpoints are
essential "to prevent people seeking to carry out terrorist attacks
from entering Israel and from moving around" within the West Bank
and Gaza Strip. As soon as the Palestinian Authority makes a greater
effort to thwart attacks, checkpoints will be lifted, he says.
Palestinians say checkpoints are often in areas well-removed from
Israelis and amount to collective punishments. They believe the real
purpose is to increase pressure on the civilian population. …