Following the onslaught of angry verbal responses to Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling forcing the army to open an important artery to Arab traffic, Knesset Members are now considering practical action.
The Court ruled that Route 443, the well-traveled Modiin-Jerusalem highway, cannot be permanently closed to PA Arab traffic. It gave the army five months to come up with security arrangements that will enable the highway to be open safely to Arab traffic.
The highway was closed to Palestinian Authority vehicles in 2002 following a wave of terrorist attacks along its route. At least four Israelis – Eliyahu Cohen of Modiin; husband and wife Yaniv and Sharon Bar-Shalom of Ofarim, who left two orphans under two years old, and Sharon's brother Doron Sviri – were murdered in two of the attacks. Other terror incidents on the highway included shootings at policemen and other drive-by shootings.
Local Jewish residents refuse to accept the decree, complaining both of the dangers and of ethnic discrimination.
Unsafe and Detached from Reality
Modiin Mayor Chaim Bibas told Arutz Sheva, "We will fight in every way possible against this decision. We are organizing for an uncompromising fight, and we have met with Knesset Members and former army officers, including the division commander who made the original decision to close the route because of the attacks."
Racist and Discriminatory
In nearby Dolev, residents are perplexed at the racism inherent in the ruling. Resident Adi Mintz explains: "We asked the courts many times to allow us to travel on roads that have been closed to us and opened only for Arabs – yet we were turned down. The route we take to Jerusalem now takes us nearly twice as long as before. Yet in this case, the Supreme Court rules that the Arabs must be allowed to travel on 'Jewish' roads - despite the security dangers in the wake. This is an unfair, discriminatory law that places us on an unequal footing before the law."
"The Supreme Court 's decision is detached from reality," Mayor Bibas said. "The judges are apparently sitting in an ivory tower and don't realize what's going on. The Knesset must pass legislation to bypass this decision."
MKs at work
MKs are already working on this option. MK Moshe Matalon (Israel Our Home) has proposed that the area of Route 443, part of which passes through Samaria, be annexed to sovereign Israel, just as the Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem have been. "We would then not have to ask anyone whether to allow Arabs of the Palestinian Authority to use the route," Matalon said." If the road comes under Israeli sovereignty, PA Arabs would not be allowed into it without an entry permit.
Nationalists hung signs along Route 443 on Wednesday reading: "Warning, driver: [Supreme Court Chief Justice Dorit] Beinisch is endangering your life on Route 443."
Another legislative idea has already received the support of Cabinet Ministers Yuli Edelstein and Uzi Landau. The proposal is to pass into law a specific bill stipulating clearly that 443 is closed to Palestinian Authority traffic. Edelstein said that he generally does not like "High Court-circumventing legislation," but in this case, "the court's ruling is simply a gamble with lives."
A stretch of the 28-kilometer highway – 150 meters wide by 10 kilometers long – is situated on Arab lands that were confiscated in order to build it. The Supreme Court authorized the confiscation at the time, saying it was necessary to meet the growing transportation needs of the area. After the road was closed to Arab traffic in 2002, local Arabs complained that their transportation needs were being ignored. In Dec. 2008, a largely parallel six-kilometer route was opened for all-Arab traffic, connecting several Arab villages along Route 443 with Ramallah and ostensibly obviating the need to allow Arab traffic on 443.