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News > Palestine

Israel Opens Apartheid Road Cutting Palestinians From Jerusalem

  • Israel opens apartheid road that will separate Palestinians and Jewish illegal settlers.

    Israel opens apartheid road that will separate Palestinians and Jewish illegal settlers. | Photo: Reuters

Published 10 January 2019
Opinion

Israel opened another apartheid road that will not allow Palestinians to enter Jerusalem. 

After a delay of more than a decade, Israel opened Route 4370 in the Jerusalem area Thursday, dividing Palestinians and Jewish settlers. The “Apartheid Road” has a wall eight meters (approximately 26 feet) high and the road itself is 3.5 kilometers (approximately 2.1 miles) long.

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The road is being called  the “apartheid road” for segregating Palestinians from illegal Jewish settlers.

The road connects the settlement of Giv’at Binyamin (Adam settlement), to the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road, between French Hill and the Naomi Shemer Tunnel, which leads to Mount Scopus.

The western side of the wall is meant to prevent Palestinians from entering Jerusalem because they will have to go around Jerusalem without entering the city.

The “Apartheid Road” was built over a decade ago but could not open due to a dispute between the army and police over staffing the new checkpoint along the road.

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said that the road is “an important step in linking Binyamin Council residents to Jerusalem and in strengthening metropolitan Jerusalem.”

According to Katz, “Apartheid Road” is “a model of the possibility of creating a shared life between Israelis and Palestinians, by maintaining existing security challenges.”

The opening ceremony of the road was Tuesday. It was attended by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz and Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan.

This is not the first “Apartheid Road” in occupied Palestine. According to the B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, Israel has numerous roads on or through which Palestinians are not allowed to drive without a special permit.

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