Jewish residents of Hevron and Kiryat Arba are set to protest on Saturday night against the opening of the central Zion Road (Tzir Tzion) to Palestinian Authority Arab traffic. Opening the road will lead to murder, the Jews warn.
"The reckless policy promoted by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, of opening checkpoints and roads, is resulting in one disaster after another,” activists said Friday.
"The most recent victim was a 16-year-old child from Bat Ayin,” they added. Young Shlomo Nativ was murdered by a terrorist on Thursday in a brutal axe attack that also wounded a seven-year-old boy.
Several local politicians blamed the recent removal of checkpoints in the area for contributing to the killing. Israel has removed dozens of checkpoints over the last several months – and has released hundreds of terrorist prisoners from jail – as “good-will gestures” to the PA.
Residents of Hevron said opening the Zion Road clearly poses a risk, pointing out that the last time the road was open to local Arabs, two Jews were murdered within one day.
The latest terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, in which terrorists used motor vehicles to attack pedestrians and motorists, show the havoc that a terrorist could wreak with just a car, they said. If the road is opened, local Arabs will drive past groups of Jewish pedestrians dozens of times each day, posing a serious risk, they added.
Most of Hevron's roads are closed to Jews and used exclusively by PA Arabs. In the Jewish quarter, the main road is open to Arab pedestrians as well as local Jews. However, Arab motorists must use other roads to leave the city.
The IDF has already informed Hevron's Arabs of the plan to open the road to Arab traffic in the near future.