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Amid Relatively Calm West Bank, Settlers Still Struggle with Security

[JTA] Dina Kraft - Yossi Klavan, 41, had been en route from his job at a high-tech firm in Jerusalem to his home in the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron when he saw the rocks coming last week. He tried to steer beyond the range of Palestinian stone throwers who had already pelted the bus ahead of him. Immediately he heard a large thud, the crashing of a rock into the side window. The window, made of reinforced plastic, did not shatter. Two more rocks hit the side of the car. "It's around the clock," said Klavan, who said his area has seen a noted rise in roadside incidents against Israeli cars. Overall, such attacks on West Bank roads have dropped markedly in the past year. But settlers say that such incidents are a reminder of the ongoing threat of violence that is part of their daily lives. Israelis are not allowed to enter Palestinian-controlled areas without an army escort out of concern that they could be attacked or even captured. Avital, from Ofra, remembers the days in the 1980s before the outbreak of the first intifada when she and her neighbors would go to Ramallah on a daily basis - something no one has done in years. "We would go to the banks there for the shorter lines, get our prescriptions filled in the pharmacies. If our local grocery store ran out of challah on a Friday, I knew I could pop into the supermarket in Ramallah."
2009-07-24 06:00:00
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