PALESTINIANS SEEK PROGRESS ON WEST BANK MOVEMENT

UNCLAS JERUSALEM 004568

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE; NEA/IPA FOR
WILLIAMS/SHAMPAINE/STEINGER; NSC FOR ABRAMS/DORAN/WATERS;
TREASURY FOR SZUBIN/LOEFFLER/NUGENT/HIRSON

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON ETRD KWBG KPAL IS
SUBJECT: PALESTINIANS SEEK PROGRESS ON WEST BANK MOVEMENT
AMA IMPLEMENTATION

REF: A. JERUSALEM 4511

B. JERUSALEM 4472


1. (SBU) Summary: ConGenoffs, accompanied by USSC, USAID
and Embassy Tel Aviv representatives, met October 17 with
Palestinians involved in the negotiation of the Agreement on
Movement and Access (AMA). The informal meeting, the third
in a series of preliminary brainstorming discussions intended
to reinvigorate AMA implementation efforts, focused on
movement within the West Bank and West Bank-Gaza convoys
(reported septel). The Palestinian team pressed for internal
West Bank movement to be dealt with comprehensively, rather
than through a piecemeal approach to eliminate only certain
checkpoints or restrictions. They stressed that the PA would
not be a formal party to the prospective negotiations because
any agreement on ameliorating the situation would denote
acceptance of the closure regime. They stressed that they
consider the issue to be political, rather than technical.
As a result, they pointed out that they do not consider "the
principle of transportation contiguity"--or a separate road
network linking Palestinian areas--to be an acceptable
alternative to territorial contiguity within the West Bank.
End summary.

SOLUTION MUST BE COMPREHENSIVE
--------------


2. (SBU) The Palestinians, led by representatives of the
PLO's Negotiations Support Unit (NSU) and including former PA
Planning Minister Ghassan al-Khatib, reiterated that they
consider the entire regime of movement restrictions within
the West Bank to be illegal, and, as a result, they will not
be a formal party to negotiations to ameliorate it. (Note:
The AMA speaks only of US-Israeli discussions on this issue.)
They reviewed the current regime of West Bank movement
restrictions and its impact on Palestinian life. According
to the Palestinian team, there are 125 km of roads in the
West Bank that Palestinians are prohibited from using. There
are 1200 km of roads that have severe restrictions on
Palestinian use. The Palestinian team reported that UN
OCHA's latest figures note 528 obstacles to Palestinian
movement in the West Bank, which represents a 40 percent
increase since August 2005. The Palestinian team also noted
that many of the checkpoints separating the West Bank from
green-line Israel are several kilometers inside the West
Bank, thus, they argued, checkpoints like Qalandiya,
Beituniya, and the Bethlehem Rachel's Tomb are part of the
issue of internal West Bank movement restrictions. Finally,
the Palestinian team said that they also consider the GOI
internal West Bank permit regime to be one of the primary
obstacles to movement within the West Bank.

HUMANITARIAN IMPACT SIGNIFICANT
--------------


3. (SBU) All of these obstacles, according to the
Palestinian team, cause significant humanitarian problems in
the West Bank today. For example, the obstacles to movement
have effectively divided the West Bank into three parts:
northern, central, and southern. They have also led to the
narrowing of the West Bank, by making the area between the
separation barrier and the Green Line, the Jordan Valley, and
East Jerusalem off-limits to the majority of Palestinians.
The Palestinian team argued that the impact of this regime is
to entrench Israeli settlements in the West Bank and warned
that improvement on movement and access should not have this
result.

PROBLEM IS POLITICAL, NOT TECHNICAL
--------------


4. (SBU) The Palestinian team stressed that restrictions on
West Bank movement are a political, not a technical, issue.
They noted that there are serious obstacles to movement
around every West Bank city. (For example, they pointed out
that Jenin is now completely cut off from Nablus.) Former
Planning Minister al-Khatib insisted that this clearly
indicated an Israeli policy of making inter-city travel in
the West Bank impossible. He added that movement
restrictions are a tool through which Israel is trying to
determine the future of the area. Both al-Khatib and others
noted that the restrictions are extremely detrimental to the
Palestinian economy. Because of the political nature of the
problem and its impact on the Palestinian economy, the

Palestinian team reiterated their position that the only
workable solution would be a comprehensive solution.
Al-Khatib stressed that, in his opinion, the checkpoints are
more of a cause of violence than a measure to prevent
insecurity.


5. (SBU) In closing the discussion, the Palestinian team
advised us that they believe the principle of "transportation
contiguity" is not a solution and is not an acceptable
alternative to territorial contiguity. They said that in
earlier phases of the negotiations, Israel had suggested that
they construct two separate road networks in the West Bank,
one exclusively for Israeli use and one exclusively for
Palestinian use. The Palestinian team rejected this solution
and insisted that engaging in construction of an alternate
road network is the same as engaging in construction of the
separation barrier.

WALLES