Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Is This An Apartheid Road?

Who will get to drive on this road?

Will it be permissible or even safe for Israelis to drive on it?

Read this story (with redaction corrections by me in italics):-

The Israeli occupation authorities on Monday opened a road near the West Bank city of Ramallah after eleven years of closure.
The Palestinian Civil Affairs Commission said that the Israeli authorities allowed the Palestinian Authority (PA) to reopen road 466 near Ein Seinya, to the north of Ramallah. The Israeli army closed the 10 kilometer road in 2002 under the pretext [????] that Palestinian militants terrorists opened fire against Jewish occupiers civilians.

The commission said that “Israel agreed to reopen the road after intensive pressure from the PA.” the closed section is located in Area C.

It said that road, which begins from the entrance of Beit El settlement village to the northern entrance of Ein Seinya, connect Ramallah with the Palestinian cities in northern West Bank. It added that the Palestinian Ministry of Public Works rehabilitated the road due to the damage Israeli forces caused [???].

The commission added that the road connects Ramallah with its northern villages, home to 60,000 Palestinian residents. It added that the Palestinian residents were forced to use alternative roads during the last eleven years to travel between the two destinations [as did Jews when the 'Wallerstein road' was closed, not to mention our inability to drive through Ramallah like we used to do].

The spokesman of Israeli army said that the decision to open the road to Palestinian traffic was approval by the Israeli forces OC Central Command and the Judea and Samaria (West Bank) Division.

The spokesman added that the opening of the roads is part of goodwill gestures to Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel used to extend goodwill gestures to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and moderates in the PA.

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