May 24, 2008, Samu’a
Imagine a village on a brown rocky hill. A tractor, a few donkeys, a horse or two, a jumble of stone houses. Imagine the access road to the village, meant to connect up with the larger road that flows into the main north-south route from Jerusalem to Hebron. Imagine a tall mound of compacted earth and rock that blocks the access road completely – one of the 540-odd roadblocks that the Israeli army has put in place throughout the occupied West Bank. Ten meters to the south of the blocked road and parallel to it runs a dirt path that now serves the village; yellow taxis, minibuses, and private cars hobble along it to the point where it somehow impinges on the highway. So what is the point of the roadblock? That is one question.
