Israel Demolishes Dozens of Palestinian Shops for West Bank Road Project

Israeli bulldozers demolished dozens of Palestinian shops this week on the edge of the town of al-Eizariya, southeast of Jerusalem. The action cleared ground for a settlement-linked road project in the E1 area of the occupied West Bank. Israeli authorities said the demolitions were essential to construct a road intended to serve local Palestinian communities.

The structures, including car washes, scrap metal shops and vegetable stands, were built without permits, they said, and owners had received warnings for several years that enforcement was forthcoming. Palestinian officials stated the road forms part of a broader plan to divert Palestinian traffic away from a new highway built for nearby Israeli settlements.

They said the project will lead to separate road systems for Israelis and Palestinians and could result in the displacement of thousands of Bedouin Arabs living in the area.

Some shop owners received notices to evacuate less than a week before the demolitions. Attorneys appealed to Israel’s Supreme Court, but the demolitions proceeded. COGAT, the Israeli military body overseeing civil affairs in the West Bank, said the structures obstructed construction of the planned road meant to connect Palestinian towns.

Israeli authorities added that the new road system is intended to solve congestion and improve quality of life for Palestinian towns in the area. The Palestinian Authority said the demolitions are connected to Israel’s plans to build a tunnel and bypass road.

This would reroute Palestinian traffic off a major highway linking settlements to Jerusalem and cut off access to large areas of the West Bank, they said.

Some of the demolished shops partially blocked sidewalks and roads leading into the town. Palestinians said obtaining proper construction permits from Israeli authorities is nearly impossible, even as Israeli settlements expand in the area. Mohammad Abu Ghalieh, a 48-year-old shop owner, described the loss after the demolition.

“Forty-eight years of night and day to build something for his children and himself, and in one day and one night, everything was gone,” he said. Daoud al-Jahalin, head of a nearby village council, said more than 200 families would lose their incomes.

The project would lead to the displacement of thousands of Bedouin Arabs living in the area.

The E1 project is located in a strategic section of the West Bank. It runs from the outskirts of Jerusalem deep into the occupied West Bank, isolating the cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem and hindering north-south movement for Palestinians. Israel is planning to build some 3,500 apartments next to the existing settlement of Maale Adumim.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. The international community considers Israeli settlement construction in the occupied territory illegal and an obstacle to peace.