Palestinians plan a new highway through their territory
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 1/6/2000

The trip from Ramallah to Gaza was not that pleasant for Palestinian President President Yasser Arafat. It was the first time since his return to the Palestinian territory that Arafat drove in a motorcade through Israel's territory. The two helicopters that Arafat usually uses for commuting between various parts of the Palestinian controlled areas were grounded because of the bad weather and the president, who was at his Ramallah office, had to go to Gaza to meet his guest, Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, chief imam of Al Azhar in Cairo.

The rainy weather disrupted Arafat's plans, though his people were quick to organize the trip, with an entourage from the Israeli police and army. In the early afternoon the eight-car convoy left Ramallah. Arafat's car was in the middle, with a red Palestinian license plate with the number "1." The Palestinian guards who traveled with the President were armed and they reportedly rejected an Israeli request to unload their weapons. "Along the way Arafat looked out the window," his associates reported. "It was too bad that it was raining and that he couldn't see everything."

To avoid a similar situation in the future, reports have spoken lately of a Palestinian plan to pave a new highway that will connect all cities in the West Bank and shorten the distances between them. This highway will eventually serve all Palestinian officials and ordinary people who at present have to cross Israeli army roadblocks while traveling, mainly between the northern part of the West Bank and the southern part. According to the plan, the project is to be carried out in stages and in accordance with the timetable of the Israeli withdrawals. The Palestinians assert that the project is to be funded by the Americans. The "Trans-Palestine Highway" as it is called, will connect all the West Bank cities, from Jenin in the north through Nablus to Bethlehem and Hebron in the south. There will be a number of exits to smaller roads leading to the villages and towns.

Palestinian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath told reporters a few days ago that the first section of the road should be paved between Jenin and Nablus after the implementation of the third stage of Israeli withdrawal, which is scheduled for January 20. Israeli officials reportedly welcomed the Palestinian plan to pave the road, saying that it would eliminate traffic jams on the old, narrow and twisty West Bank roads. They stressed, however, that the road should be paved through Palestinian territories and not in Israel at all.

Meanwhile, Israel officially carried out the 5 percent withdrawal of its troops in the West Bank, but in a few days officials from both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides are due to meet and coordinate joint tours of the area with maps to ascertain what territory is being transferred to the Palestinians. The two parties will also discuss the implementation of the third and last stage of the further redeployment which is slated to take place on January 20th. The third redeployment is the last one stipulated by the interim agreements between the Palestinians and Israel and will give the Palestinians control over areas south of Hebron. Palestinian sources said that the government plans to submit demands to Israel for territories including Abu Dis, Izariyyeh and Al Ram, all suburbs of Occupied Jerusalem. Palestinian officials hope that within the context of the third and last redeployment of the Israeli troops, control over those areas would eventually become in the hands of the Palestinian authorities. There has not been any response from Israel to this demand, but Palestinian circles lately spoke of what they termed a positive understanding shown by Israel on this matter.

In a related development, right wing sources in Israel claimed that Prime Minister Ehud Barak has already promised the Palestinians control of the border of Jerusalem, in order to placate them so that they will agree to receive the territory of the second withdrawal. According to this pledge, the sources said, areas surrounding Jerusalem such as the three neighborhoods would become under Palestinian control once the upcoming stage of the further redeployment is done. The Sources attacked Barak for the plan and said that should he go ahead with its implementation, the whole integrity of Jerusalem as being the so-called capital of Israel, would be at stake.

Previous Stories:
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