The State announced on July 1st that the military order forbidding Palestinian movement on Route 443, which connects Tel Aviv and Jerusalem via the West Bank, has been extended until May 2010. The State Prosecution presented this information to the High Court of Justice as part of the legal proceedings pertaining to ACRI’s 2007 petition against the restriction on Palestinian movement on Route 443, which was originally claimed to have been constructed for the benefit of the local Palestinian population.
Following a hearing on ACRI’s petition against the prohibition on Palestinian vehicles on Route 443 in March 2008, the High Court issued an interim decision which effectively bestowed a stamp of approval on the separation of roads according to nationality – one set of roads for Palestinians and one for Israelis. The Court’s decision set a dangerous precedent for human rights in the Occupied Territories, upholding state-sponsored racial segregation. Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish issued an interim decision ordering the state to submit a progress report on the construction of a parallel road for Palestinians within six months.
Palestinian residents of the West Bank have been prohibited from driving on Route 443, a main thoroughfare for some 160,000 local residents, since the end of 2000. The case itself represents a watershed moment in the legal history of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. In the 1980s, parts of the road were built on land expropriated by the Israeli Military Commander. In response to a petition submitted at the time by local residents against the expropriation, the High Court accepted the State’s claim that the road was intended primarily for the benefit of the local Palestinian population – the same population which is today prohibited from using the road.
More: Background information on 443 petition (English)
