16/6/2026 – Union for Justice Foundation
Northwest of Jerusalem is facing a harsh reality that reflects a policy of control over people’s fate through tools of geographic engineering and security traps. The occupying authorities have fully taken control of the entrance to the tunnel connecting the towns of Biddu and Al-Jib—a vital and only artery for all villages and towns in the area—serving a large population concentration estimated at between 50,000 and 70,000 people.
This newly implemented measure is only one example among thousands of checkpoints and military barriers spread across the West Bank, which have come to resemble a spider-web-like network that suffocates residents and obstructs their daily movement. Confining the mobility of tens of thousands of people to a single narrow underground passage reflects a deliberate insistence on turning the daily life of an entire region into a condition dependent on a single choke point. This comes after settlement policies and the separation wall have closed all alternative historical entrances to these towns, transforming the tunnel from a natural passageway into a tool of collective punishment that continuously threatens freedom of movement.
The occupying authorities routinely close this passage for long and extended hours, under the pretext of conducting technical maintenance work or installing surveillance cameras and security systems, and at other times under security-related justifications. These repeated closures significantly exacerbate the humanitarian suffering in an unprecedented manner.
This repeated closure results in the abrupt isolation of villages and towns northwest of Jerusalem from their surrounding environment, thereby plunging the education sector into a cycle of successive crises. The destructive impact on the educational process is directly and continuously manifested in the deprivation of thousands of students and teachers from reaching their schools and universities in nearby cities and areas.
This military control effectively turns the entire educational process into a hostage to the whims of the occupying soldiers, leading to disruption of academic life and the spread of persistent psychological stress and anxiety among students and their parents. This, in turn, empties the right to education of its substance and undermines the educational and psychological stability of younger generations in these communities, whose residents cannot even rely on their ability to carry out daily needs or return to their homes.
The geographic restrictions and the continuous closures lasting for long hours have a devastating impact on the health situation of the population. The prevention of movement obstructs access for emergency and critical medical cases, such as pregnant women and patients with kidney and heart conditions, from reaching hospitals and major medical centers in nearby cities. The entire area is effectively turned into what resembles a large open-air detention space, where thousands of residents are physically confined, and all are placed—without exception—at the mercy of a single soldier controlling entry and exit. Leaving the fate of civilians dependent on a military decision at the tunnel entrance means that even a delay of a few minutes for an ambulance can become a decisive matter of life and death. This represents a serious deterioration in the healthcare system and a further entrenchment of the policy of forced medical neglect resulting from the siege.
The Union for Justice Foundation affirms that these systematic practices constitute a clear violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly prohibits collective punishment and all measures of intimidation and terror against persons protected under occupation. This military closure and control also contradict Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees every individual the right to freedom of movement and to choose their place of residence within the borders of a state. Furthermore, it represents a blatant violation of Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which obliges states to ensure the provision of medical care and unhindered access to healthcare facilities and essential services without military or artificial geographic barriers.
In light of this dire reality, the Union for Justice Foundation calls upon the international community and global human rights institutions to intervene immediately to end the geographic siege imposed on the area, and to compel the occupying authorities to halt the repeated closures lasting for long hours under baseless pretexts, and to reopen all closed roads and checkpoints across the West Bank.
The Foundation further emphasizes the necessity of providing international protection for Palestinian civilians and ensuring their full freedom of movement and access to essential services such as education and healthcare without restriction or condition. It also demands an immediate end to the transformation of safe villages and towns into isolated enclaves and collective prisons that suffocate daily life and strip residents of their most basic human rights.
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