Ramallah: Israel has begun to install surveillance cameras on roads in the occupied West Bank, which Palestinians say is just the first step of blanketing the entire Palestinian territory with high-tech spying devices.
The provocative measure comes just after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to take down cameras and metal detectors from Al Haram Al Sharif, Islam’s third holiest site, after popular protests by Palestinians against the invasive measure.
Earlier this week, Israeli occupation forces installed cameras on electric poles in the village of Madama, near Nablus. Work is also underway to install cameras in Tell and Iraq Bureen, and other Palestinian villages and towns.
Madama’s Village Council has reported the issue to the Palestinian-Israeli Civil Affairs Liaison Office.
Wisam Nassar, from the village council, told Gulf News that it would coordinate with all relevant authorities to get the cameras removed.
He said the cameras, which cover roads from all four directions, violated personal freedom and freedom of movement, and that villagers should be extremely wary about them.
Gassan Doghlous, the Palestinian official in charge of overseeing Israeli colony activities in the northern areas of the West Bank, called for the problem to be addressed “at the highest level”.
He told Gulf News that the occupation forces were implementing a smart camera project to cover all West Bank roads, with a particular emphasis on those leading to Israeli colonies.
The West Bank houses more than 150 Israeli colonies and more than 100 colony outposts.
More than half a million colonists live in the West Bank, which Israel captured and occupied in 1967.
