Ex-Israeli generals denounce checkpoints

Ex-Israeli generals denounce
LAURIE COPANS
The Associated Press

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JERUSALEM (AP) — A group of retired Israeli generals has launched a
campaign urging the army to remove West Bank roadblocks, warning on
Wednesday that the travel restrictions sow Palestinian hatred of
Israel and stymie the peace process. The 12 top former commanders
say the hundreds of checkpoints dotting the West Bank are excessive
and other military means can be used to prevent suicide bombings in
Israel. The Palestinians have long demanded that Israel remove the
roadblocks as a way to build faith in recently renewed peace talks.

The generals have written a letter to Defense Minister Ehud Barak in
an effort to persuade him to gradually remove the checkpoints, which
severely restrict movement of the some 2 million Palestinians who
live in the West Bank and have crippled their economy. Israel
maintains the checkpoints are vital for its security. "You have to
understand that there is damage in having the Palestinian people
with its back to the wall, not seeing a light at the end of the
tunnel, unable to improve their economy, unable to move from place
to place," Ilan Paz, a signatory of the letter and a former head of
the army's administration of Palestinian civilian affairs, told
Israel Radio. "This creates a reality that creates terror, and we
have to remember that." Barak, currently on a visit to Turkey, was
not immediately available for comment, and the Israeli army declined
to comment. The retired commanders hope to persuade defense
officials to make a gesture to the Palestinians and thus give Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert a free hand in peace talks, said Shlomo Brom,
another signatory and a former chief of the army's planning
division. The removal of the checkpoints is a key issue in the U.S-
backed negotiations now under way between the sides, who have said
they aim to reach a final peace agreement this year.

The talks were renewed after a high-profile peace meeting in
November in Annapolis, Md., sponsored by President Bush. Israel
captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east
Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians are seeking an
independent state in those territories. "The feeling of humiliation
and the hate the roadblocks create increase the tendency of
Palestinians to join militant groups and Hamas," Brom said. "I think
that this can help the peace process. Of course the goal is to help
the ... plans of Olmert in striving for a peace agreement." As an
alternative, Brom suggested using mobile army forces to set up
temporary checkpoints when they receive concrete information of
militant activity. "We believe these alternatives are no worse than
the movement restrictions" in preventing terror attacks, said Paz.

Brom noted that the current measures, which include impassable dirt
barriers and permanent checkpoints where Palestinians can only pass
after showing permits to soldiers, are not entirely effective. He
added that Israel should quickly complete construction of its
separation barrier with the West Bank, which has proven effective in
keeping out suicide bombers. The planned 490-mile barrier, a complex
of concrete walls and electronic fence, is two-thirds complete. The
removal of checkpoints also would bolster Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas, Israel's partner in peace talks, in facing the
militant Hamas and preventing its takeover of the West Bank, Brom
said. Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in fighting with Abbas-
allied forces in June. West Bank checkpoints didn't prevent a
suicide bombing in the southern town of Dimona last week, Brom
noted. One woman was killed and 11 wounded in the attack, in which
two bombers sneaked from the West Bank city of Hebron through a
section of the barrier that is not yet completed.

The 12 former generals who signed the letter include retired chiefs
of army branches that oversee the civil affairs of Palestinians in
occupied areas and the former commander of the Hebron area. Other
signatories include a former police commissioner and two former
directors of Israel's Foreign Ministry. As part of the ongoing peace
talks, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni may meet Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice this week during a trip to the United States
this week, officials said.

The talks have been marred by ongoing Palestinian rocket fire from
Hamas-controlled Gaza and by disputes over Israeli construction in
east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed but which the Palestinians want
as the capital of their future state. On Wednesday, the
Palestinians' top negotiator sharply protested an Israeli plan
announced Tuesday to build more than 1,000 new apartments in Jewish
neighborhoods in the city's eastern sector. Ahmed Qureia called the
plan a "declaration of war on the peace process," and said it
aimed "at sabotaging and paralyzing any efforts for real work toward
real peace in the area."

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