RAMALLAH: Traffic jams snarled the roads and Eid Al-Fitr celebrations were muted as an Israeli lockdown of the popular tourist city of Jericho entered its second day.
The West Bank city, which last year welcomed record numbers of tourists, was devoid of visitors this year as road closures and military checkpoints made travel all but impossible.
Abdulkarim Sidr, the mayor, said that the racist policy of Israeli military authorities prevented many locals and visitors from reaching tourist places. “These closures are without any known reason, and there is no clear explanation,” he said.
A trickle of visitors were able to make it to some of the city’s parks and gardens, hitting the trade of local business.
Long queues formed at the Israeli checkpoints on the Allenby crossing, leading to long delays for anyone trying to get in or out of the city.
Sidr said the blockade, the latest in a months-long set of restrictions, was part of Israel’s collective punishment of the people of Jericho, its camps and visitors.
Eyad Hamdan, the tourism head in Jericho, said that with “this strict siege and the cessation of tourism, the city has lost one of its most important sources of livelihood.”
He added that thousands of merchants used to visit Jericho, to serve large crowds of visitors.
Tayseer Hamida, head of the city’s chamber of commerce and industry, said that the siege had “greatly affected tourism and constituted a continuous, undeclared blow to the city’s economy, which relies on agriculture and tourism.”
He said it was Israel’s policy to “hit Palestinian economic activity.”
The only visitors found in the city were people from the occupied West Bank, Palestinians living in Israel, and foreign tourists who were stuck in Jericho because of the Israeli siege.
Adel Abu Ni’emeh, a journalist from Jericho, told Arab News that the blockade had worsened conditions for the 40,000 people who live in the city and its camps. He said there had been no explanation of why the city had been closed off.
The Israeli army meanwhile closed the military checkpoint north of Bethlehem, preventing thousands from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque and visiting their relatives in Jerusalem during Eid. It also closed the Container checkpoint connecting the southern West Bank with its center, while procedures at the Huwwara checkpoint near Nablus were also tightened.
