West Bank trade hub feels checkpoint squeeze

NABLUS, West Bank, Aug 6 (Reuters) For five years, Ziyad al-Sarrawi watched Israel's tightening cordon around the city of Nablus slowly strangle the auto parts shop he built from scratch.

He found his solution in April when he opened a new branch a few kilometres away -- just on the other side of Hiwwara, the Israeli checkpoint at the southern entrance of the city that cuts Nablus off from much of the occupied West Bank and Israel.

Within the tangled network of 500 checkpoints, roadblocks and barriers across the West Bank, the eight checkpoints around Nablus may be the ultimate obstacle.

Home to about 365,000 Palestinians, Nablus and the surrounding villages have been famed as a centre for trade since Greco-Roman times.

Before Israel ringed Nablus with checkpoints in 2002 after the start of the Palestinian uprising, the city was the West Bank's economic heart.

Now about 25,000 Palestinians struggle to cross Hiwwara and other checkpoints around the city each day. On a slow day, the lucky ones can make it through the long lines and Israeli security checks within minutes. But it can take hours and those who don't have the right permit get turned back.

''We are being suffocated here by these checkpoints,'' Sarrawi said inside his older Nablus shop. He said the new branch serves as ''the lungs'' to allow his 36-year-old business selling Mercedes-Benz spare parts to survive: ''We were forced to go out of Nablus so that we could breathe.'' Sarrawi, 57, is far from alone. Entrepreneurs who cannot afford to open new branches are moving out of Nablus, a city some 60 km north of Jerusalem, in increasing numbers.

Although the Nablus Chamber of Commerce does not keep exact numbers, it estimated that Israeli restrictions have reduced business income in the city by more than 40 per cent.

''If the checkpoints remain in place, then I am afraid all businesses will leave,'' said Omar Hashem, acting president of Chamber of Commerce.

In a bid to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas following Hamas's takeover of Gaza, Israeli officials say they are preparing to remove some of the roadblocks and checkpoints that restrict Palestinian travel in the West Bank.

But few Palestinians expect Hiwwara to be removed any time soon and say any changes may be short-lived.

DESERTED KASBAH Nablus's ancient kasbah used to attract Israeli and other foreign tourists. Its car repair shops, in particular, attracted customers from across the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel, pumping millions of dollars into the local economy.

''In the afternoon, you can play football in the markets. No customers,'' said Mahdi Hijazi.

Like Sarrawi, he moved his spare parts business from Nablus to the Hiwwara village because of the Israeli checkpoints.

To pass through the checkpoints that surround Nablus and nearby villages, motorists need to obtain a special permit.

Some 620 trucks, 400 private cars and 200 taxis have received permits since the beginning of the year, allowing them to cross through checkpoints within the West Bank, an official with Israel's civil administration said.

Another 1,200 permits were issued to local businessmen to visit to Israel.

The Israeli army defended the restrictions, saying in a statement that it has long considered Nablus to be ''a major hub of intensive and incessant terrorist activity'' and citing the discovery in recent years of large quantities of weapons and explosives.

But local Palestinian residents say the checkpoints are an instrument of collective punishment, noting that a suicide bomber has not struck from the city since 2005.

Few shops at Nablus's central vegetable market stay open past noon.

''This market was working 24 hours. Now it operates four hours in the best case scenario. It is dead,'' Fawwaz al-Masri said in front of his greengrocer's shop.

''Had you visited seven years ago, I would not have the time to talk to you. Now look at me.'' Many vegetable store owners are moving to the nearby village of Beita, a few km beyond Hiwwara.

''We were starving inside Nablus,'' said Imad al-Hafi, a father of six who moved to Beita five years ago. ''We drowned with debts because we could not collect our money because of the checkpoints.'' At the new spare parts shop Sarrawi is opening just outside Nablus, his son, Abboud, has been busy taking orders from customers from across the West Bank and Israel.

''Sales are better here,'' said Abboud, 26.

But at his Nablus headquarters, Sarrawi still worries about the future: ''Here we are living in a big prison. As long as people cannot come to Nablus with their cars, the economy won't improve.'' REUTERS SLD KP0918