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Expropriation of 280 dunams for a New Bypass Road for Settlers South of Ramallah

The Civilian Deputy Head of the Civil Administration, Hillel Roth, issued an order to expropriate approximately 280 dunams of land from the villages of Jaba, Kafr Aqab and Mukhmas for the purpose of paving Highway 45, a new bypass road for settlers south of Ramallah. The expropriation comes after in May 2024, the plan for the road (Plan No. 926/1) came into effect after the Higher Planning Council (HPC) rejected all objections submitted to it. This is a necessary step on the way to paving the road, which is budgeted at approximately 300 million NIS, and work will be able to begin within a few months, after a construction permit is issued.

The planned road is intended to connect the Ramallah bypass road near the settlement of Kochav Yaakov to the Qalandiya Underpass (a road that passes under the Qalandiya checkpoint and is in the final stages of construction), and to allow settlers from the settlements east and north of Ramallah (such as Adam, Kochav Yaakov, Psagot, Beit El, Ofra, and more) a quick and short access route to Israel, without having to go through the traffic jams at the entrance to Jerusalem at the Hizma checkpoint. The construction of the road is expected to boost the development and construction of the settlements north of Jerusalem.

Peace Now: The construction of roads by Minister Regev and Minister Smotrich is another settlement tool being carried out in the West Bank on an unprecedented scale. The idea that roads that bypass the Palestinian communities will eliminate the political, diplomatic, and security problem known as the settlements enterprise is a dangerous, expensive, and violent illusion. The confiscation of hundreds of dunams for the sake of expensive roads that serve so few only highlights the injustice and absurdity of the government’s policy. Israel does not need more roads to bypass Palestinians, but ways to reach a political solution with them.

The meaning of the expropriation:

The law in the Occupied Territories allows the authorities to expropriate private land from its owners for public needs, and obliges them to pay them compensation. According to international law, as well as according to the ruling of the Israeli Supreme Court, Israel is prohibited from expropriating land for settlement purposes or for the needs of Israelis. Therefore, in order for the expropriation to be legal, the state will claim that the road is also intended to serve the Palestinian population, even though it is clear that the logic and main purpose for building it is for the needs of the settlers who travel daily between the settlements and Israel.

Past experience shows that Palestinian landowners almost always do not demand compensation for the land, because they refuse to recognize Israel’s authority to expropriate their land, and from their perspective, receiving compensation is tantamount to agreeing to sell the land. This has enabled Israel to expropriate tens of thousands of dunams over the years, mainly for road purposes, almost without paying anything for it.

The next step after the expropriation is to obtain a construction permit from the Higher Planning Council of the Civil Administration in order to begin work. This is usually a bureaucratic process that takes several weeks or months. If the landowners file petitions with the court demanding that the expropriation be canceled, the court may delay the start of work until the petitions are considered, but past experience shows that these petitions are almost always rejected.

Upgrading roads for settlers throughout the region

Roads are the key to the development of settlements. Most settlers commute to work within Israel every day, and the faster and more comfortable the roads are, the more attractive the settlements become. For example, after the opening of the Bethlehem East Bypass Road (“Lieberman Road”), the number of settlers in the settlements along its length doubled in less than 10 years.

Highway 45 (“Quarry Road”), the land for which was expropriated for its construction, is a central axis within a network of roads on which the government has been working intensively in recent years, and is intended to connect to:

Qalandiya Undepass – ​​Work is currently being completed on the Qalandiya Underpass (costing approximately 80 million NIS) – a road that passes under the Qalandiya checkpoint and is intended to allow rapid passage of settlers into Israel without undergoing the strict inspection that Palestinians undergo.

Upgrading and widening of Highway 60 in the section between Shaar Binyamin and the British Police Intersection – On 24/7/24, the expropriation of 66 dunams was announced for the purpose of expanding and upgrading Highway 60 in the section north of Shaar Binyamin. An application for a construction permit to begin work is currently on the table of the Higher Planning Council and is expected to receive approval soon. The cost of the project is NIS 975 million.

Upgrading and widening of Highway 437 (Ramallah Bypass) in the section between Hizma and Shaar Binyamin – On 18/10/23, the expropriation of 76 dunams was announced for the purpose of widening the road, and these days the work is being carried out intensively.

Works on a traffic circle on Highway 437. In the background is the village of Hizma.

Additional roads:

In recent months, there have been developments in the advancement of many roads for the settlers. The total budget invested in them is enormous, and according to Minister Smotrich, it is close to 7 billion NIS. Here are some developments that Peace Now has noticed:

Last week, the Ministry of Transportation announced that work on the Funduk bypass road has begun (a 200 million NIS project). It should be noted that the road is going to be paved on private Palestinian land that was seized for military purposes on March 2023, and not through expropriation for public purposes. Peace Now estimates that this is due to the fact that a small part of the planned road, about 6 dunams, is located in Palestinian Authority territory (Area B), and since Israel does not have the authority to plan roads in Area B, it does so under the pretext of security.

On 18/11/24, an expropriation was announced for the purpose of upgrading and widening Highway 55 in the section between the Green Line and the Alfei Menashe settlement (a 120 million NIS project).

On 13/10/24, an expropriation was announced for the purpose of expanding and upgrading of Highway 505 (“Crossing Samaria”) in the section between Ariel and Tapuach Junction (a half-billion NIS project).

On 23/5/24, an expropriation was announced for the purpose of expanding and upgrading Highway 60 in the section between Halhul and Sa’ir.

About three months ago, work began on the Sheikh Inbar Tunnel – a tunnel under the A-Tur neighborhood that is intended to complete the Eastern Ring Road from East Jerusalem to the east so that settlers from the settlements south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem will be able to bypass Jerusalem’s traffic jams on a highway that will connect them in the Ma’ale Adumim area to the northern West Bank.

In recent weeks, work has begun to complete the new access road to the Beit Aryeh settlement (Luban Bypass Road) at a cost of NIS 120 million.

A sign announcing the works on the construction of the Luban Bypass Road, December 2024