Israel watchdog calls to lift West Bank roadblocks

VALLEY OF FIRE CHECKPOINT, West Bank (Reuters) - An Israeli lobby group said on Wednesday that Israel could do without many of its military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank.

Visiting two of more than 500 roadblocks Israel operates in the West Bank, officials of the Peace Now group questioned the efficacy of many of the checkpoints that hamper Palestinians' movement on roads that do not lead into Israel.

"These checkpoints don't prevent terrorists from infiltrating into Israel," Hagit Ofran of Peace Now told reporters at the dusty Valley of Fire checkpoint near Jerusalem, where soldiers monitored passing Palestinian vehicles, only occasionally stopping a driver to see identification papers.

Most Palestinian drivers at the crossing, roughly half-way between Bethlehem and Ramallah, would have to face at least one additional checkpoint, if they wanted to enter Israel, she said.

If Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "wants to show he is serious about going towards some kind of political negotiation, the easiest thing to do is to ease traffic in the West Bank," Ofran added.

Olmert pledged at a summit in Egypt on Monday to ease travel restrictions for more than two million Palestinians living in the occupied territory, a bid to boost support Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah in his rivalry with Islamist Hamas, which seized control of Gaza this month.

But aides to Olmert have said Israel would wait to implement such steps until Abbas made more efforts to rein in militants.

The Israeli military has also lobbied against removing West Bank roadblocks, arguing this could hamper its security efforts.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on Peace Now's recommendations. Israel has maintained that its roadblocks are necessary to keep suicide bombers away from its cities.

Palestinians have long denounced the checkpoints as a collective punishment measure that also hampers their economy.

In a page-long report, Peace Now said Israel had built 560 roadblocks in the West Bank, many since a Palestinian uprising in 2000. Of these, 467 consist of metal fencing, earth mounds and concrete barricades used to shut roads, the report says.

Another 93 are full military checkpoints staffed by soldiers and 58 of which -- or more than 60 percent -- monitor roads that run only inside the West Bank, the lobbyists said in the report.