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Settlers to battle Palestinian road plan

18 May 2010 01:10 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. West Bank Jews vow to battle plan to build Palestinian road over land allocated for settlement expansion, APA reports quoting ynetnews.com web-page. ’Palestinians traveling on new road will enjoy same ’phony security’ we get,’ they warn.
Rightist elements on Monday said they would fight a decision to pave an access road to a new Palestinian city north of Ramallah on lands designated for settlement expansions.
According to a Yedioth Ahronot report, plans of the modern city Rawabi (Arabic for hills) were finalized long ago and construction has already commenced. One of the bones of contention between Israel and the Palestinians in recent months has been over the area where the access road to the city would be paved.

Settlers have been protesting the slated construction of the road, while youngsters entered abandoned structures in the area, forming improvised outposts.

Sources at the Regavim Association told Ynet that the story of the access road reflects the sad tale of Rawabi as a whole: "The city was initiated and conceived with the complete helplessness of the security establishment, led by Defense Minister (Ehud Barak) and Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu), while the Palestinians unilaterally determine the facts on the ground."

The association claimed that founding the new city is part of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s plan to unilaterally establish a de-facto Palestinian state, without Israel’s consent and without maintaining Israel’s national and security interest."

"Netanyahu and Barak are succumbing to the Palestinians over the construction of the access road, giving a seal of approval to the Palestinians’ sovereignty efforts in Judea and Samaria," said a source at the association.

"After forbidding Jews to build houses in Judea and Samaria, Netanyahu’s government is now looking to take their lands and transfer them to the Arab authorities," noted Chairman of Binyamin Settlers Committee Itzik Shadmi.

Elements in the Right warned that if legal proceedings are not effective, Palestinians traveling on the new road would enjoy the same "phony security" as the settlers who get stoned on their ’private’ roads.

Members of Knesset also expressed their determined opposition against the new plan and claimed it was scandalous. MK Uri Ariel (National Union) said that the Likud government was looking after the Palestinians’ construction boom "on the expense the settlers’ property. It is an impudent and cynical conduct of people who have forgotten their nation and their people."