Israel Matzav

Shin Bet: Roadblock removal endangers Israelis

Over the weekend, on orders from the government Condi Rice, the IDF removed fifty unmanned road blocks and two manned checkpoints from Judean and Samarian roads. The head of Israel's Shin Bet (General Security Service - like the FBI and the Secret Service in the US combined) Yuval Diskin (pictured) says that removing those barriers without having the 'security fence' completely in place endangers Israelis' security. The next terror attack is - God forbid - just a matter of time. And Ehud K. Olmert and Condoleeza Rice can share the blame.

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin criticized the Defense Ministry on Sunday for removing 50 unmanned West Bank roadblocks last week in partial fulfillment of its promise to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

It is harmful to Israel's security to take away the barriers that restrict Palestinian movement, Diskin told the cabinet at its weekly meeting.

Such actions should only have been taken after the West Bank security barrier was completed, he said.

As of this winter, only about 63 percent of the barrier was finished, according to the Defense Ministry, which estimated that the project would not be finished until 2010.

There were 563 road barriers as of this winter, according to the United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Out of those, only 87 were manned.

Two of those 87 checkpoints were also removed last week - one near the Rimonim junction, between Ramallah and Jericho, and another one near the Dead Sea - as part of Israel's commitment to the US to help the Palestinians.

The barrier at Rimonim was there because there has been a terror attack there.

Etty Galiah, 48, was shot to death on November 18, 2002 by a Palestinian terrorist who plugged nine bullets into her car as she drove past that junction, near the Palestinian village of Taiba. The roadblock was unmanned as a gesture to the Palestinians.

So Galiah, who never remarried, was concerned to hear on Monday that the roadblock, which had been in use since his wife's murder, had been dismantled by the army as part of a promise by Israel to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"It's worrisome," said Galiah.

The father of seven has lived in the Orthodox Kochav Hashahar settlement for 28 years.

He warned that another terror attack at the junction, like the one that shattered his life, is just a "matter of time."

"It will happen again, just like the last time," he said.

"The moment there is no army presence, it isn't a problem to stand there and to kill," said Galiah.

He was not reassured by a pledge the army made to Binyamin Regional Council head Avi Ro'eh to deploy a jeep to protect the road.

The IDF said that no such promise had been made.

How many Israeli lives are Condi's 'gestures' going to cost?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:42 AM