Some rights gains for W.Bank Palestinians--report

Positive changes, B'tselem said, included an easing of Israeli-imposed movement restrictions in the West Bank, a freeze on East Jerusalem house demolitions this year and a reduction in administrative detentions -- those without charge or trial -- as well as in the number of Israeli and Palestinian fatalities.

"Most of the improvements, however, did not result from changes in Israeli policy or legislation, but are the result of the relative calm in the conflict," it said in a statement. "In other areas, the violations continued as in the past," it said...

...As violence has fallen, Israel has continued to build a barrier through the West Bank that it says keeps suicide bombers and militants from crossing into the Jewish state, but which Palestinians call a land grab since it cuts off a number of villages and separates some farmers from their land.

B'Tselem said the pace of barrier construction had slowed but it continued to cut off a number of Palestinian villages and land holdings. Israel started work on the barrier during the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, earlier this decade.

"Despite two changes that were implemented following High Court rulings, the barrier continued to harm severely tens of thousands of Palestinians," B'Tselem said.

"Israel continued to restrict Palestinian access to extensive areas in the West Bank, such as East Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, and land west of the separation barrier, and generally treated Palestinian freedom of movement as a privilege it may retract at will," it said.

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