Israeli sources revealed a plan by the Israeli government to build roads in the West Bank that will be used only by Israeli settlers to move among the settlements in the West Bank.
A source at the office of the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stated that this plan has been prepared some time ago and it aims to separate the Palestinians from the Israeli settlers.
The plan, according to army spokesman Avihai Addari, aims to separate the roads the Palestinians use from those the settlers use. Both are built on Palestinian lands.
After the latest attack in Gush Etzion near Bethlehem and Eli, near Nablus, the army prevented the Palestinians to drive on the roads the settlers drive on. This attack, which took place last Sunday, left three Israelis dead and few wounded.
According to the ‘Road Disengagement Plan’, Israel will build some underground roads and subways to be used by Palestinians instead of using the existing roads. These roads will be used in the future in case Israel will conduct another disengagement plan, similar to the disengagement from the Gaza Strip.
Local observers said, for a future disengagement to fruitful, it should include dismantling all the settlements in the West Bank, however, given this plan to build more roads, it is clear that Israel does not intend to evacuate the settlers from the West Bank.
The observers also believe that a new wave of the Intifada will come up soon, since Israel did not freeze the settlement activities at all.
The roads will not only split the west Bank into half, but will also expropriate more land from the Palestinians along its route.
The Israeli Center for Human Rights, ‘B’tselem’ said in a report published last year, that there are some 700 Kilometers of roads in the West Bank that are inaccessible for the Palestinians. Only settlers can drive on these roads, despite that all these roads are built on land confiscated from Palestinians.
