{"id":4725,"date":"2007-09-17T08:07:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-17T06:07:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2024-12-14T19:10:30","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T17:10:30","slug":"epalestine-ocha-fact-sheet-increasing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/2007\/09\/epalestine-ocha-fact-sheet-increasing\/","title":{"rendered":"OCHA Fact Sheet: Increasing need, decreasing access: Humanitarian access to the West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Date: 10 Sep 2007  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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OCHA Fact Sheet: Increasing need, decreasing access: Humanitarian access to the West Bank  <\/strong><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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UN agencies have been informed by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials that all crossings into the occupied Palestinian territory will be standardized by the end of 2007 by which time much of the construction of the Barrier will be completed. Already, UN agencies are seeing increasing restrictions at crossings into the West Bank similar to those already in place into Gaza. This Fact Sheet explains how existing and planned restrictions will seriously impair the ability of humanitarian organisations to operate.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Humanitarian supplies into the West Bank:<\/strong>  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Until January 2007 the crossing regime consisted of twelve crossings at which humanitarian organisations could truck supplies through the Barrier. Trucks were allowed to drive directly into the West Bank from Israel and containers cleared at the port of entry could be taken directly to West Bank destinations.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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The IDF was the sole controlling authority at all crossings; final responsibility rested with the Ministry of Defense through the office of Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Since January there has been a steady tightening of restrictions on the access for humanitarian goods and a reduction in the number of crossings that can be used.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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By early 2008 the planned regime will include:  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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A reduction from 12 crossings to five for all import and export trucks. A sixth crossing near Bethlehem (Mazmouria) is scheduled to open towards the end of 2008. Three of the six crossings – Beitunya, Mazmouria and Tarqumiya – are inside the Green Line on Palestinian territory.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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A ‘back-to-back’ system will be installed whereby goods will have to be unloaded from trucks on the Israeli side of the Barrier, scanned, and then loaded onto trucks on the Palestinian side, and vice versa.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Goods will have to be on palettes and scanned. Container loads may have to be ‘palettised’ in Israel before crossing into Israel or into the West Bank. Even if UN goods can remain in containers, UN agencies are concerned that the Palestinian transport sector will not have sufficient trucks requiring multiple contracts and resulting in long delays. They are also concerned that certain commodities may be restricted, as is currently the case in Gaza. For example, 20% of UNRWA’s humanitarian supplies are not amenable to containerisation.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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A variety of authorities will be at the barrier crossing points including IDF, Border Police, civil Police, private security firms and Customs Department officers, answering to at least three different Ministries which will preclued a common and coherent chain of command.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Impact:<\/strong> The impact on humanitarian services will be serious. There will be large additional costs for more trucks, drivers, and handling. Long delays, and damage to goods through extra handling can be foreseen. The security of goods will not be guaranteed. Humanitarian organisations anticipate major difficulty meeting the needs of the population.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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UNRWA has stated; "We will be unable to meet the needs of the population if these conditions exist".<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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Full_Report (pdf* format – 1.2 Mbytes)<\/u> <\/span> <\/font> <\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)  Date: 10 Sep 2007  OCHA Fact Sheet: Increasing need, decreasing access: Humanitarian access to the West Bank  UN agencies have been informed by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials that all crossings into the occupied Palestinian territory will be standardized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[936],"class_list":["post-4725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"authors":[{"term_id":936,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sambahour","display_name":"Sam Bahour","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bca109c333bf6d8ae807746dd512adde46265d37c923f6cd0fc4aab437f8e9aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"1","first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Bahour","user_url":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour","job_title":"","description":"

Sam Bahour<\/strong> is a Palestinian-American business consultant, writer, and commentator based in Al-Bireh\/Ramallah, Palestine. He is the principal of Applied Information Management (AIM)<\/a>, a consultancy specializing in business development and startup advisory services.<\/p>\r\n

Bahour was instrumental in establishing two of Palestine\u2019s publicly traded companies: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (APSC). He co-founded Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (A4VPE), of which he is now an emeritus member, and served as an independent director on the board of Arab Islamic Bank P.L.C. from 2004 to 2025. He currently serves on the board of Just Vision<\/a> and The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS)<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

He frequently gives talks to delegations visiting Palestine on the subjects of Palestine\u2019s political economy, Palestinian Politics 101, and a general orientation to the state of affairs under Israeli military occupation.<\/p>\r\n

A prolific writer on Palestinian affairs, Bahour has been published in major international outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, Haaretz, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera America, Le Monde diplomatique, Al-Monitor, +972 Magazine, The Hill, and Arab News. He has appeared as a commentator on NPR, CNN, BBC, and other broadcast media.<\/p>\r\n

Bahour is the co-editor of Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians<\/a><\/em> (Olive Branch Press, 1993) and was profiled in the bestselling anthology Kingdom of Olives and Ash<\/a><\/em>, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, in a chapter authored by Chabon titled \u201cThe Tallest Man in Ramallah<\/a>.\u201d He holds an Associate\u2019s and Bachelor\u2019s degree in Computer Technology from Youngstown State University, and a Kellogg-Recanati International Executive MBA \u2014 a joint program of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.<\/p>\r\n

He tweets at @SamBahour<\/a>, blogs at www.epalestine.ps<\/a>, and may be reached at sbahour[AT]gmail[DOT]com.<\/p>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4725"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}