Barriers designed by the Israeli Defense Forces to control Palestinian movement within strategic areas (in the case of Hebron - areas close to the settlements and The Tomb of the Patriarchs). In most cases, it is composed of two elements - infrastructure impeding pedestrian and vehicular traffic as well as the permanent presence of security personnel whose role is to check the documents of people crossing the checkpoint and conduct random searches of their belongings. The watch point is also an indispensable element of the checkpoint structure.
As a report carried out by the B'Tselem organization and Association for Civil Rights indicates checkpoints violate the Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination signed by Israel in 1966 and ratified in 1979. The direct proof that discrimination is based on national-ethnic origin is the fact that Jewish visitors coming to the area as well as most of the international tourists are not subjected to detailed and often humiliating control.