Israel opens key checkpoint in occupied West Bank
NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) — Israel on Monday opened a key checkpoint near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, partly easing heavy travel restrictions around the flashpoint town, an AFP correspondent said.
An army spokeswoman said troops would completely remove checkpoint 804, allowing Palestinian vehicles and pedestrians to move unhindered between Nablus and the village of Assira al-Shamalia to the north.
But Mohammed al-Jawabri, the mayor of the village, said the army told him the checkpoint would not be removed but merely opened for automobile traffic to pass through between 6:00 am and 10:00 pm.
"This is not suitable because the soldiers can close it at any time," he told AFP.
The army spokeswoman denied that account, insisting that the checkpoint would be removed and only replaced in case of a specific terror threat.
"The removal of the crossing is aimed at easing the lives of Palestinians. But if it will be used for terror activities Israel will reconsider," the spokeswoman said.
The crossing is one of 61 West Bank barriers which Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered to be removed last month in a bid to improve living conditions for Palestinians and bolster their faltering economy, she said.
But Ibrahim Abdullah, 47, a passenger in a car passing through the open iron gate of the checkpoint, said the move was "nothing more than media propaganda."
Mohammed Omar, 52, a taxi driver from the village, was a little more optimistic. "The opening of the checkpoint is a good thing because it will take less time for us to go to Nablus."
But, he added, "the fact that the soldiers are remaining worries us because they can close the checkpoint at any time. We don't want to see the soldiers here because it will allow us to pass with more freedom," he said.
Israel has more than 500 checkpoints, roadblocks and barriers across the West Bank which it says are necessary to protect civilians living in Israel and in dozens of Jewish settlements.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) earlier this month said that Israel had removed only 44 of the 61 West Bank roadblocks and that most of them were of little or no significance.
