Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories, March-April
REPORT ON ISRAELI SETTLEMENT IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES A Bimonthly Publication of the Foundation for Middle East Peace Volume 13 Number 2 March-April 2003 BARBED WIRE, STONE, AND ASPHALT FORGE A NEW WEST BANK Israel has just elected Ariel Sharon tion, contiguous to existing development itself built in part on al-Azariya’s patri- for a second term, an expression of pub- and in new outposts along adjoining mony. lic support not bestowed on an Israeli mountain ridges, and extensive site This road features a tunnel under prime minister since Menachem Begin. preparation for future development. Mt. Scopus, not unlike the Tunnel Road International efforts to fill the diplo- Revolutionary changes in patterns of that links the East Jerusalem settlement matic vacuum created by the destruction transportation and access are also in the of Gilo with the Etzion bloc of settle- of the Oslo process continue to proceed works. There are new roads for Israeli ments to the south. For a time, Palestin- in fits and starts, without much confi- settlers, aimed at facilitating safe travel ian snipers had all but closed this route dence of success. While most interna- to Israel and encouraging economic to settlers—since the outbreak of the tional attention is focused on these two development. In contrast, the dynamic intifada they are the only Israelis who features of the political and diplomatic for Palestinians is just the opposite—an travel the West Bank—but today the landscape of the conflict, the best ever-increasing network of barricades, route is lined with concrete barriers. barometer of relations between Israelis obstacles, patrol roads, and prohibitions The road is meant to serve residents and Palestinians is, and remains, the that isolate them from settlements, each of the settlement of Betar Ilit, home to state of affairs on the contested lands other, and from places of work, compro- almost 20,000 members of the ultra- themselves.
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