40,000 dunums of Arab land expropriated for 30 bypass roads

Palestinian sources complained that Israel has confiscated no less than 40,000 dunums of Arab land, mostly privately-owned, in order to pave some 30 bypass roads in the West Bank, agreed upon in the Oslo Accords to give Jewish settlers in the area access to their settlements without having to drive trough Palestinians cities and villages where Palestinian youths had thrown stones at them.

"There is nothing in the Palestinian-Israeli agreement that justifies the Israeli schemes to open a wide network of bypass roads in the West Bank," said Khalil Toufakji, director of Maps Department in the Arabs Studies Society in East Jerusalem.