Israeli Occupation Through the Use of Bypass Roads

I feel that the key object used by the Israeli military to control the settlements is the construction of bypass roads. These roads clearly show the occupation force of the Israeli government. According to the Monitoring Israeli Colonization Activities in Palestinian Territories at the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem, the objective of bypass roads is to encircle existing Arab towns is to impede their future growth, while protecting settlements and boosting the Jewish population in settlement areas. According to the report “The Discriminatory West Bank Road Regime Act,” issued on October 2004, the bypass Roads fall within three categories, the first of which is ‘Completely prohibited roads’ where Israel fully forbids Palestinian vehicles from using these roads; the second is ‘Partially prohibited roads’ which Palestinians are only allowed to travel if they have valid movement permits issued from the nearest District Coordination Office; and the third is ‘Restricted use roads’ and such roads can only be reached and accessed through an intersection at which the Israeli Occupation Forces retain control through a checkpoint. The Israeli Government had classified the bypass roads to more meet the needs of settlers inhabiting the Israeli settlements.

ARIJ records a total of 794.79 km of Israeli bypass roads inside the West Bank. The construction of which required the confiscation and destruction of more than 80 km of Palestinian land, most of which was agricultural. The network of checkpoints and crossing borders also allows Israel to control and monitor Palestinian movement and access to the network of bypass roads. Additionally, these roads contribute to the fragmentation of the West Bank by carving up Palestinian areas into isolated ghettos and often depriving the Palestinians of the vital agricultural land.

These roads severely limit the movement of Palestinian citizens and are thus in violation of basic human rights that should be guaranteed to the Palestinians; such as the right to work, the right to health, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to protection of family life and the right to education, all set in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.