(Photo: Fadi Arouri)
About 50 Palestinians joined by number of international activists blocked today the Apartheid Road 443 (known as Modi’in, which passes on West Bank lands, connecting Tel Aviv to Jerusalem). The road was blocked for about 30 minutes to Israeli and settler traffic.
(Photo: Activestills)
Soldiers and Border Police who arrived on the scene physically attacked protestors and journalists, and used pepper spray and sound bombs. One Palestinian protestor was detained and beaten. He was released an hour later.
The direct action today was organized in light of the increasing settler terrorism against Palestinians and their properties during the current olive harvest season, including the torching, uprooting or setting fire to olive trees, the theft of harvested olives, and the attacking of Palestinian families while picking olives.
(Photo: Marshall Pinkerton)
Mohamad Khatib, of the PSCC emphasized, “We organized this action today to stress that as long as Palestinians suffer under the daily practices of the occupation and settler terror, Israeli daily life can’t continue on as normal.”
Khatib added, “We call on people of conscience around the world to support the Palestinian struggle by engaging in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel, and to take serious actions to boycott companies that are complicit with the Israeli apartheid, such as Veolia, which operates transportation routes that use Road 443, which is built on Palestinian lands.”
Background, Road to nowhere: During the occupation of the West Bank in June 1967, the Israeli army destroyed the villages of Yalu, Beit Nuba and Amuasse in the Latrun enclave. ”Canada Park” and a number of settlements were built on their lands.
Most of the residents of these three displaced villages currently live in villages near Highway 443, such as Beit Liqya, Beit Sira and Beit Ur. In the eighties, thousands of acres were confiscated by Israel along the road, claiming that the road will serve as the main traffic artery for these villages to Ramallah.
However, the road has been closed for years to Palestinian vehicles. Following the High Court ruling on Route 443, a small section of the road was opened last week for Palestinian traffic, but is still nearly useless for the villagers, as access to Ramallah from it is prohibited, turning it into a highway to nowhere for Palestinians.
(Photo: 
Visualizing Palestine has an excellent graphical overview of the segregated road system on the West Bank, including Road 443, that can be seen here.
We organized this action today to stress that as long as Palestinians suffer under the daily practices of the occupation and settler terror, Israeli daily life can’t continue on as normal.
I am struck by the similarity of this language to that of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993, when he rationalized his plan to attack civilian areas in Southern Lebanon to frighten people into fleeing to Beirut to pressure their government to end attacks on Israel. “We will not permit a situation where there is no calm and security in Israel, while there is calm and security in southern Lebanon. . .If there will be no quiet and safety for the northern settlements, there will be no quiet and safety for south Lebanon residents north of the security zone.”
There is of course a gigantic difference. Rabin was rationalizing his terror-bombing of a civilian population, which killed well over 100 and sent hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing from their homes in panic. The PSCC is explaining why they are choosing to risk their bodies and their freedom to cause inconvenience to illegal settlers who routinely practice racist terror of their own. As Pam Geller says, “In Any War Between the Civilized Man and the Savage, Support the Civilized Man.” OK, Pam.
The only way to end apartheid. I’d call these guys good Samaritans.
Israeli soldier spits on Palestinian flag. Hilarious. For every Jew in Erez Israel there is at least one palestinian. Israel really looks like northern Ireland in the 1950s. A protestant state for a protestant people/ a Jewish state for a Jewish people. Both with demographic issues.
The Palestinians should do more of this road blocking. It gets the message across very well. Palestinians may have been erased from the Israeli consciousness but they haven’t gone away, you know..