B'Tselem. Route 443, which links Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv area, used to be a major Palestinian traffic artery in the southern Ramallah District and was the main thoroughfare between Ramallah and the Palestinian villages lying southwest of the city. Prior to the second intifada, which broke out in September 2000, Israel widened the road – requisitioning private Palestinian property in the process – into a four-lane highway. Israel contended that the land was taken to meet the needs of the local population and promised that the local villagers would be allowed to use it.
Despite the promise, in 2002, Israel prohibited Palestinians to travel by car or foot on the fourteen kilometers of the roadway that lie in the West Bank . The prohibition also applied in emergency medical cases and to the transport of goods for the surrounding Palestinian villages. Palestinians were left with a one-lane road connecting the villages to the road to Ramallah and for travel between the villages. This alternate road was worn and winding and passed through a tunnel under Route 443. It was much longer than the original road and served all the 35,000 residents of the villages lying on either side of the road.
The prohibition on Palestinian travel on Route 443 was never authorized by military order or by any other legal means. It was effectively implemented by physical obstructions – iron gates, concrete blocks, and/or checkpoints and later by army patrols, which stopped and punished Palestinians caught driving or walking along the road, to make it clear to Palestinians that they were not allowed to use the road. Subsequently, the Israel Police began to enforce the prohibition, and issued tickets, on one pretext or another, to Palestinians using the road. At both ends of the road, where it entered Israeli territory (Maccabim Checkpoint) or Jerusalem 's jurisdictional area (Atarot Checkpoint), Israel set up permanent checkpoints at which the vehicles crossing were checked. This situation continues today.
Map of road 443. Road connecting the villages were blocked by the army.
Full map
Movement along Route 443 is crucial to the villagers. For many of them, this is the main roadway taking them to their farmland and the primary access road to Ramallah. Ramallah is the commercial center on which the villagers rely for their livelihood, for emergency services, social services, hospitals, schools, as well as being the home of relatives and friends. As a result of the prohibition, more than one hundred small shops have closed along the route, among them floor-tile establishments, flower shops, furniture stores, and restaurants.
To “compensate” the villagers for the prohibition on using the road, Israel has built three roads, referred to by the authorities as “fabric of life” roads, to connect the villages with Ramallah. Construction of these roads entailed the taking of additional land from the villages and villagers located on and alongside these roads. The route of the roads is longer than Route 443 and passes through the local villages. In addition, the alternate roads are intended to perpetuate the existing situation, in which Palestinians are prohibited to use the main road, which, as stated, passes across their land, and despite Israel 's promise that these landowners would be allowed to use it.
The prohibition infringes the right of Palestinians to freedom of movement, and, as a result, their ability to exercise other rights, such as the rights to health, work, family and social life, and education. The “fabric of life” roads that Israel built also infringe the property rights of Palestinian villagers in the area.
Israel has the right and even the duty to protect the lives of every person on territory under its effective control, including territory it occupies. Israel also has the right to impose restrictions on movement of Palestinians, but only when needed for security reasons and in accordance with the principle of proportionality. The prohibition on Palestinian use of Route 443 appears to be based on extraneous reasons, the most important being Israel 's desire to annex, de facto, the area along which the road runs. The road is a main thoroughfare between two parts of Israel , Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv area. If Israel were only interested in protecting the lives of Israelis using the road, without annexing the area, it could limit or even prohibit the travel of Israelis on the road, and build other roads and provide other means of transportation to connect Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
The prohibition on travel also flagrantly breaches international law, which forbids collective punishment. According to Israel , the restrictions on movement are part of its ongoing struggle against security threats, and are intended for deterrence and not as punishment. However, the vast majority of the persons suffering from the prohibition are not personally suspected of posing any threat to Israeli security. The prohibition also constitutes discrimination based on the national origin of the person wanting to use the road. Such discrimination is forbidden under international law.
In July 2007, residents of six of the villages along the route, represented by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel , petitioned the High Court of Justice to remove the obstructions that deny them access to the road, and to open the road to Palestinian travel. In response, the army announced that it would allow eighty vehicles from the petitioners' villages to use the road. They would be allowed to use the road only during the day. Travel at night would be allowed for humanitarian needs, following coordination with the Civil Administration. Palestinian vehicles could enter the road via the checkpoint near Khirbata al-Misbah and continue to the village of al-Jib, where the vehicles would switch to the “fabric of life” roads that link the village with Ramallah. The new arrangement is supposed to begin this month (October) and continue until May 2008, when the army will reconsider its necessity.
This arrangement will provide for only partial movement of villagers living along Route 443 to and from Ramallah. Also, it does not solve the issue of principle, that of the army placing prohibitions and restrictions on Palestinians using the road. With a limited number of Palestinian vehicles allowed to use the road, and with the travel being limited to daylight hours, many Palestinians will continue to be restricted from exercising basic human rights, such as family visits and regular travel to their places of work.
Route 443 is one example of the travel-prohibition regime Israel imposes on Palestinian vehicles on various roads in the West Bank . B'Tselem calls on the Israeli authorities to immediately remove the prohibition on Palestinian travel on Route 443, and to allow residents of the nearby villages open use of the road, day and night. B'Tselem also urges the authorities to remove similar restrictions on other roads in the West Bank, among them Route 557, which runs from the Huwara checkpoint to the villages of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan, and to the Elon Moreh settlement, in Nablus District, and Route 90 (the Jordan Valley road), which is the main north-south artery in the Jordan Valley.
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