Israel's Quagmire

As per this story in The New York Times, first Israel took over private Palestinian land in the occupied territories to build Highway 443, an access road to Jerusalem. In the 1980s, when the road was built, this went all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court, which permitted the taking of property, because the road was for the benefit of the Palestinians, so the Israeli Army certified. Yeah, right, we take your land to build roads for you.

Now, because of security reasons, Palestinians are barred from using Highway 443. And the Israeli Supreme Court has asked for separate but equal roads for the Palestinians.

The whole thing seems rather obscene. IMO, Israelis should be barred from using the road if it is not secure. Anyway, such is the quagmire Israel has built for itself. It will not be able to escape the karmic consequences; my main fear is that they will drag the whole world down too.

David Kretzmer, an emeritus professor of international law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wrote in an op-ed article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz of what he called the “judicial hypocrisy” of Israel’s reign over the territories manifest in this case.

He said that while the changed security circumstances of recent years may have forced a change in the road’s mixed use, “the unavoidable conclusion is that, as unfortunate as this may be, Israelis should not be allowed to travel on the road that was built, let’s not forget, for the benefit of the local population.

“But the military government has, of course, decided otherwise: Israelis will be allowed to travel on the road, while Palestinians — for whom, the court’s ruling says, the road was paved — cannot use it, and access to the road from local Palestinian villages will be blocked.”