The severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the vicinity
of the settlements in Hebron encourage the arbitrary and regular
harassment of the residents. Like this case in which a grocery store
owner lost 1,200 NIS worth of merchandise.
On 17 March 2014, Anwar
Maswdeh, a Hebron grocery store owner, received a delivery of snacks and
ice creams. In his testimony to B'Tselem he described what happened:

“I
unloaded about 20 boxes of chips and 50 boxes of ice cream from the
vehicle. I asked the Border Police officer at the checkpoint to open the
gate for the truck so that I could transfer the goods to my grocery
store. He refused, claiming that I didn’t have a permit from the Civil
Administration. I had to bring in the goods by hand using a cart. I got
the chips into the store in three loads without any problems. When I
started loading the ice cream boxes, the Border Police officer suddenly
stopped me and ordered me to bring the boxes to him for inspection. He
demanded that I bring them one box at a time. I refused because it was
very hot, and because I knew that if I opened the boxes it would be very
hard to arrange them in the fridge afterwards. The police officer
insisted on searching the boxes.”

The painstaking search took a
long time, and in the meantime the ice cream melted. After a delay of
about one hour, Maswdeh asked B'Tselem volunteer Raed Abu a-Rmeileh to
come to the scene. A-Rmeileh filmed the search of the boxes and the
ensuing argument between Maswdeh and the Border Police officer.
Eventually, some two hours after the merchandise arrived, Maswdeh had no
choice but to abandon the melted ice cream. He sent the shipment back
to the factory, but suffered NIS 1,200 in losses.

Since the
massacre of Muslim worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs,
perpetrated by settler Baruch Goldstein in 1994, the military has openly
pursued an official policy of segregation in Hebron. The main means the
military uses to this end is the imposition of severe restrictions on
the movement of Palestinians in the city center, where most of the
settlements are situated. Since the settlements themselves are illegal,
the restrictions add insult to injury. The freedom of movement of an
entire population is put under sweeping and disproportionate
restrictions in order to facilitate and perpetuate a policy that is
inherently illegal.