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Israeli and Palestinian Drivers Celebrate New "Divided" Road
(JNS) Josh Hasten - A new 5-km. stretch of highway east of Jerusalem contains separate lanes for Israeli citizen and non-citizen traffic divided by a concrete wall. Motorists are praising the new Eastern Ring road, Route 4370, which bypasses an overtaxed entrance to Jerusalem, as a game-changer that is alleviating traffic jams in the area. The road bypasses the busy Hizma checkpoint, which for years has been a daily rush-hour bottleneck for both Jews and Arabs. Akram Abdel-Rachman, a retired business leader in the Jerusalem Arab community, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new road. He said, "Any project that eases the life of residents in the area...is a blessing." He was joined at the ceremony by the mukhtar of the Arab town of Anata. While Arabs can travel freely on all of the main arteries throughout the West Bank, Jews are limited in which roads they can travel. Under Israeli law, it's illegal for Jews to enter any territories labeled as Area A, under full Palestinian Authority control. Large red signs warn Israeli citizens not to enter PA-controlled towns and villages. Prior to the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, Israelis were able to travel freely throughout the West Bank, including in major Arab cities, and Palestinians were able to travel freely throughout Israel.