it is much worse

(From the Angry Arab)
"It’s much worse than before. If I want to go as a lawyer to Ramallah and I have a court session at say 10am, in ‘normal life’ I would leave Bethlehem at 9, and I’d be in Ramallah at 10. But now you have to leave at 7am and you never know. You could arrive at 10am or at 2pm. It depends on the checkpoints. We know that there are two permanent checkpoints, but usually there are what we call ‘flying’ checkpoints, and the young soldiers, kids really, decide if they want to let you go through. Sometimes they keep you for two or three hours. And they have all kinds of blacklists for Palestinians: those not allowed to leave the country; those not allowed to enter Israel or Jerusalem; those who have to be arrested wherever they might be; those who have to be kept for hours and then let go. The aim of all this is just to make you leave the country and there are special organisations in Israel to help people emigrate." (thanks Ryan)