In months prior to redeployment from Ramallah, some of the powerful symbols of occupation in the city were the blocked roads and painted concrete blocks that formed a ring around the city, telling commuting Israeli settlers not to drive into the centre. The Hebrew on the painted block on the left reads "En knissa" ("No entry") and the block on the right warns "Haknissa lekochot habitachon belivad" ("Entry to security forces only"). Many people had believed these blocks to represent a political declaration of the boundaries of the coming post-Oslo 2 Ramallah/Al-Bireh area but in fact the boundaries were larger, taking in much of the suburbs. The concern behind this was fulfilled in the western part of the city where "public security patrols" will prevent attacks on Israeli cars using one of the several bypass roads.

Near the centre of town, on Radio Boulevard, the blocks in the two photos shown here were removed by the Palestinian authority on 27 December 1995, the first day they arrived. In March 1996, they still remain by the side of the road to which they were moved, a memorial to the years of controlled movement inside the town. Since redeployment, freedom of movement continues to be limited outside Ramallah/Al-Bireh Area A, cut off completely for a day in the wake of attacks inside Israel on 12th February. On 5th March 1996, a longer punitive closure was imposed, again in the wake of several attacks inside Israel.

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