VZCZCXYZ0001
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHJM #4568/01 2921257
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 191257Z OCT 06
FM AMCONSUL JERUSALEM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5480
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY

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