A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Moving through the Israeli-occupied West Bank with its multiple checkpoints and barriers has been difficult for Palestinian residents for a while. After the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel two years ago, travel became even tougher. Citing security risk, Israel's military erected hundreds of new gates to further control Palestinian movement. All this week, NPR is reporting on the consequences of the war. And today, NPR's Carrie Kahn reports on how these barriers are affecting Palestinians across the West Bank.
KHAWLA NASR AL-DIN: (Speaking Arabic).
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Khawla Nasr al-Din (ph) stops her car at the bottom of the steep hill below the upscale Palestinian town of Rawabi in the hills of the West Bank, not far from Ramallah. She's talking to her son on the phone.
AL-DIN: (Speaking Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic).
KAHN: "It's open," the 45-year-old computer engineer tells him. She points to the huge yellow gate in front of her. It was recently erected on the only road in and out of town. The Israeli military put the gate up just two days before she says. She couldn't believe it.
AL-DIN: (Through interpreter) This is going to disrupt my life totally. Maybe I'll be in Rawabi and I cannot get out. Suddenly, I'm in a prison.
KAHN: She asks what will happen if she goes to a nearby town to shop or run an errand and then they close the gate. How would she get back to her kids or her 85-year-old mother? Everyone is talking about the gates on radio drive time reports, new traffic apps and even artists rapping gate conditions.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOUMI")
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #1: (Rapping in Arabic).
KAHN: This rap, by Palestinian artists Fawzi and Shabjdeed, is now in heavy rotation.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOUMI")
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #2: (Rapping in Arabic).
KAHN: Their auto-tuned wordplay rattles off lists of gates. They're closed, closed, closed, as well as roads, they say, are frequented by Jewish settlers ready to attack.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOUMI")
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #2: (Rapping in Arabic).
KAHN: Israel's military says the gates are vital security measures. At least 58 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in attacks in the West Bank in Israel since October of 2023. That's according to the U.N.'s Office for Humanitarian Affairs, which tracks Israeli and Palestinian casualties. That office says during the same period, more than 1,000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces, Jewish settlers, and other Israelis. Dror Etkes, an Israeli activist who monitors Israeli land policy in the West Bank, says the new gates now put Palestinians' daily lives under even tighter military control.
DROR ETKES: They can decide whenever they want to close it without explaining, without doing anything, just closing it. And you never know when they come back. It can be half an hour. It can be also half a week.
KAHN: The military declined NPR's request for exact numbers of gates in the West Bank. The U.N. says there are at least 306 now. But in a statement, the military did say that claims the gates are intentionally erected to constrict Palestinian lives is entirely, quote, "unfounded." Palestinian Authority officials disagree. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Omar Awadallah says they are a violation of international law and that the Israelis use them to cut up a future state of Palestine.
OMAR AWADALLAH: They are trying to turn it into isolated communities. They want to take out the idea that there is people, a united one people living here.
(SOUNDBITE OF AMBULANCE SIREN)
KAHN: An ambulance screeches up the road into the Palestinian city of Eizariya. It's on the main road Palestinians use for the 30-minute drive to Jerusalem. The military erected a huge yellow gate across the road three weeks ago. Ala Rabaya (ph) is just back from a job at the large Jewish settlement, Ma'ale Adumim, across the main highway. The father of four works in construction as the settlement expands.
ALA RABAYA: (Speaking Arabic).
KAHN: "It's hard when they close the gate," he says. "You really feel locked in two different worlds, one for Israelis, the other for Palestinians."
Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Eizariya in the occupied West Bank. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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