TWO ISRAELI members of the Knesset parliament are drawing up legislation to prohibit Palestinians from using a West Bank highway after the country’s High Court ordered the army to open the route to Palestinian traffic on Tuesday.
About half the 32km (20 mile) highway 443, which links Jerusalem to Tel Aviv via the city of Modi’in, passes through the occupied West Bank.
In 2002, during the second intifada uprising, the road was closed to Palestinian cars following a number of fatal shootings on Israeli vehicles.
The decision, and similar restrictions on other West Bank roads, was noted by human rights groups who drew parallels between the occupation and practices common in South Africa during apartheid.
The two-to-one ruling by the High Court panel overruling the ban followed a petition from six Palestinian villages which had land expropriated for the construction of the highway.
Judge Uzi Fogelman wrote: “The additional security achieved by the total prohibition is outweighed by the total denial of the right of Palestinians to travel on the highway, which was originally planned for their needs, and paved in part on land expropriated from them.”
Judge Fogelman explained that under international law, the military commander did not have the right to expropriate privately owned Palestinian land on behalf of Israeli residents, who were the overwhelming users of the road.
The court gave the army five months to create new security arrangements to allow Israeli and Palestinian cars use the road.
Israeli relatives of victims of shooting attacks on the road and right-wing politicians criticised the ruling, arguing that it is just a matter of time before terrorist attacks resume on highway 443.
In response to the court decision, two legislators began working on a Bill to annex the road to Israel, meaning Palestinians would need special permits to use the route.
Lawyers representing the Association of Civil Rights in Israel expressed the hope that the ruling would be extended to other segregated West Bank roads.