FLASH REPORT Infrastructures of Dispossession and Control: Transport Development in East Jerusalem January 2021 Introduction 2 Integration and Dispossession 2 Sustaining a Repressive Status Quo 5 Overview of Jerusalem Transport Projects 6 The Tunnel Road (Route 60) Expansion 6 The American Road 7 Qalandia Grade Separation and Underpass 8 French Hill Grade Separation 10 Jerusalem Light Rail Expansion 10 Corporate Complicity 12 Oron Group 12 Margolin Bros 13 Electra 14 Denya Cebus 16 Housing and Construction (Shikun & Binui Group) 18 Y.D. Barazani 19 Galnor Building & Development 20 Shoham Engineering and Development 21 Introduction panies profiled herein were contacted prior to publication. To date, no responses have Transport infrastructure, which regulates not been received. The projects surveyed are: (1) only space but the movement of people and the expansion of the Tunnel Road, a section goods across space, offers a powerful orga- of Route 60 south of Jerusalem; (2) the con- nizing instrument for an occupying power. struction of the American Road, a north-south Together with the Wall and the checkpoints, highway that cuts through East Jerusalem’s Israel’s transport network in the occupied Pal- Palestinian neighborhoods; (3) the construc- estinian territory (oPt) works to manage and tion of an underpass and grade separation control both land and population in accor- at the Qalandia checkpoint on the outskirts dance with Israeli interests. of Ramallah, north of Jerusalem; (4) the con- For Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, infra- struction of grade separation in the French structure development provides a lifeline, en- Hill settlement neighborhood and (5) the ex- hancing settler connectivity, supporting eco- pansion of the Jerusalem Light Rail Network. nomic development and normalizing Israeli Our research shows that although the proj- presence on occupied land. ects themselves are carried out by Jerusa- For the occupied Palestinian population, lem’s municipal development arm, the Mo- these infrastructure development projects riah Jerusalem Development Corporation are intimately tied to the processes of dispos- (hereafter: Moriah) and located largely within session and facilitate land grabs. In this way municipal lines, they target not only the set- transport projects are a means of annexing tlement neighborhoods of illegally annexed land, fragmenting and isolating communities East Jerusalem—but also the occupied West and destroying agrarian livelihoods by sepa- Bank as a whole. The transport projects ex- rating farmers from their agricultural lands. amined in this publication are part and parcel Moreover, these are not only processes of of a broader Israeli strategy to promote the exclusion, but also of incorporation on un- economic and spatial integration of the West equal terms. New infrastructural projects Bank in terms of dispossession, segregation address short-term Palestinian needs in ways and control. designed to ultimately sustain and entrench the structures of colonial occupation which Integration and Dispossession create these needs in the first place. For in- Within occupied East Jerusalem, transport stance, Route 4370, a recently inaugurated infrastructure has long played a key role in segregated highway, purports to enable West boosting settlement expansion, de-develop- Bank Palestinians to more easily and rapidly ing Palestinian communities and normalizing circumvent Jerusalem, a need rooted in the Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusa- fact that they are prohibited by the occupying lem, never recognized by the international power from entering the city. community. This is evident in projects such This flash report focuses on five large scale as the planned cable car to the Old City of transport infrastructure projects in East Jeru- Jerusalem (hereafter: Old City), presently in salem currently at various stages of develop- the pre-qualification tender stage,1 a tour- ment, and exposes the private corporations involved in their implementation. All com- 1 Jerusalem Development Authority, Public Tender No. 5/20 Invitation to Participate in 2 | Infrastructures of Dispossession and Control Tunnel Road (Route 60) | 15 December 2020 |Photo: Oren Ziv ism-cum-transport infrastructure project lished by Israel as a “second, organic wall”3 to which serves to accelerate ongoing Judaiza- entrench its control over Jerusalem and stra- tion of the city, and the ethnic cleansing of tegically break up the West Bank into discon- the Palestinian neighborhoods of Silwan and nected enclaves. 2 the Old City. Significantly, though the three sites are re- However, Jerusalem transport infrastructure ferred to as settlement blocs, they are not development extends far beyond municipal homogeneous settler spaces; rather they en- boundaries, facilitating the integration of compass Palestinian communities and agri- the settlement blocs that encircle Jerusalem cultural lands.4 Their ever-increasing integra- that are de-facto annexed to it by the Wall, tion with Jerusalem through a complex web collectively forming the so-called “Greater Je- of roads, checkpoints and the Wall forms a rusalem.” These include the Givat Ze’ev bloc continual assault on Palestinian land, life and to the north, the Ma’ale Adumim bloc to the livelihoods. This is the case in a recent plan east and the Etzion bloc to the south, estab- for a bypass road connecting the settlements of the Etzion bloc to Jerusalem which, if ap- Pre-Qualification Process in the Framework of a proved, would allow Israel to expropriate pri- Tender for the Selection of a Promoter to Design, Build, Operate, Maintain and Deliver a Cable Car vately owned Palestinian land along the route (Funicular) to the Old City of Jerusalem, August 2020. 3 Weizman, E. Hollow Land: Israel’s Archi- 2 Who Profits,Tourism Infrastructure and tecture of Occupation, 2007: 25. Settlement Expansion The Case of the Jerusalem 4 Ir Amim, The “Minor” Annexation of Cable Car, May 2018. Greater Jerusalem is a Major Disaster, July 2020. 3 | Infrastructures of Dispossession and Control and expand the settlement of Har Gilo west of that Jerusalem would lose its position as the the Palestinian village of Al-Walaja. Together “center of gravity” for settlements to the Tel with the Wall, the planned settlement would Aviv metropolitan area if access to the city is complete the enclosure of the village, isolat- not improved.8 Heavy investment in public ing it completely from the Bethlehem area.5 transit services to settlements and settlement Transport infrastructure is also intimately tied neighborhoods is also intended to feed into to economic development; the ever-expand- large-scale economic projects in West Jerusa- ing road network makes major residential and lem. The Jerusalem Municipality is currently commercial projects in Jerusalem-area settle- investing billions of shekels in the Jerusalem ments possible. A recent example of this can Gateway project, an enormous business dis- be found in the planned Design City shopping trict located within the Green Line which will complex in the Mishor Adumim settlement be connected to the Jerusalem Light Rail and industrial zone, the subject of an in-depth a greatly expanded public transit network, as investigation by Who Profits in an upcoming well as to the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv Fast Train 9 publication. Design City, which describes it- (A1). self as a “revolution for the inhabitants of the Infrastructural development in the so-called Greater Jerusalem”6 promises to be a major “Greater Jerusalem” area was heavily fea- engine of regional economic development, tured in the first ever Transport Master Plan creating thousands of jobs. According to its for the West Bank, presented by the Ministry website, the project is made possible “due to of Transport to settlement authorities in No- excellent traffic conditions and a new system vember 2020.10 Tellingly, though the master of roads and interchanges.”7 Another exam- plan does not include annexed East Jerusa- ple can be found in the stated objectives of lem, its preparation was spearheaded by the the expansion of the Tunnel Road, explored Jerusalem Transportation Master Plan Team, in detail below. Among other issues, the high- a joint body of the Jerusalem Municipality way expansion allows Israel to lift restrictions and the Ministry of Transportation, estab- on the construction of new housing units in lished in 1968 to formulate strategic plans for surrounding cities, including the settlement the Jerusalem metropolitan area.11 of Beitar Illit. The master plan is the result of a multi-year The transportation links between Jerusalem consultation process with settlement author- and its satellite settlements are also viewed ities12 emphasizing the political and admin- as critical to the economic life of the city. In 8 Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria, a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Defense Committee’s Subcommittee on Ju- (Hebrew). Meeting protocol, 22 November 2018. dea and Samaria, officials expressed concern On file with Who Profits. 9 Horesh, H., ‘We call it Silicon Wadi’: Is Jerusalem on its way to revolution?, The Marker, 5 Ir Amim, Civil Administration Advances 17 September 2020 (Hebrew). Huge Road Construction Plans, Pushing Forward 10 Israeli Ministry of Transportation,Com - the De-Facto Annexation of Greater Jerusalem, prehensive transport plan for Judea and Samaria, Including its Fourth Settlement Bloc, 13 August 10 November 2020 (Hebrew). 2020. 11 Jerusalem