Israeli plan to reopen settler ‘Route 463’ threatens to isolate Ramallah

The move to open Route 463 for Israeli settlers threatens to isolate Palestinian villages and severely fragment the Ramallah governorate. Save Share The Israeli army is reportedly preparing to reopen Route 463 to settler traffic, a move that threatens to isolate eight Palestinian villages and two large residential neighbourhoods in the occupied West Bank. The areas that would be most affected by the reopening of the road would be northern Ramallah and el-Bireh, a suburb of Ramallah city. It would separate the northern and southern parts of the Ramallah and el-Bireh Governorate. The road extends for about 10km (6 miles) from el-Bireh and the Jalazone refugee camp in the east to Ein Qiniya in the west. It was originally constructed in the mid-1990s to connect the Beit El settlement, north of Ramallah, to Dolev, another settlement to the west of the city. Following the outbreak of theSecond Intifadain 2000, the Israeli army barred both settlers and Palestinians from using the road for a period. The reopening of the road is part of a 1.075-billion-Israeli-shekel ($355m) settler infrastructure budget, aimed at connecting settlements in the occupied West Bank, illegal under international law. While there is no timeline for the reopening of Route 463, the far-right Israeli government is pushing for it to be implemented beforeIsraeli elections on October 27. The law will bypass the Knesset in an apparent attempt to speed up the process. The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, a monitor affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), warned that the plan falls under a “systematic policy to dismantle Palestinian geographic and demographic contiguity” in a governorate home to nearly 400,000 Palestinians across 80 communities. If reopened, tens of thousands of Palestinians would be forced to use an old alternative road near the Jalazone camp, north of Beit El, which is already heavily congested and would be unable to accommodate any increase in traffic. Jamal Juma, coordinator of the Popular Campaign to Resist the Wall and Settlements, a coalition of independent Palestinian civil society groups, said the reopening of the road will completely encircle the western side of Ramallah. The villages affected will include Surda, at-Tira, and Wadi at-Tira to the north of Ramallah, and Ein Qiniya, Ras Karkar, Deir Ibzi, and Ein Arik to the west....