The government of Prime MinisterAriel Sharon, ravaged by defections inthe Likud and the ruling coalition, isproceeding undeterred along its estab-lished timetable for the evacuation of all17 settlements in the Gaza Strip andfour others in the northern West Bankby the end of 2005.

On October 27, the Knesset, by avote of 67–45, endorsed the Sharon“disengagement” plan that was approvedby his cabinet in June. Sharon’s parlia-mentary victory was an important stepcloser to an operative Knesset endorse-ment of the settlements’ evacuation,which continues to enjoy wide popularsupport. Like the earlier cabinet en-dorsement, however, the Knesset votedid not explicitly authorize the physicalwithdrawal of settlements and armedforces from Gaza or the northern WestBank.

In an often eloquent speech before

the Knesset vote Sharon declared,

“I know the implications and impactof the Knesset’s decision on the lives ofthousands of Israelis who have lived inthe Gaza Strip for many years, whowere sent there on behalf of the govern-ments of Israel, and who built homesthere, planted trees and grew flowers,and who gave birth to sons and daugh-ters, who have not known any otherhome. I am well aware of the fact that Isent them and took part in this enter-prise, and many of these people are mypersonal friends. I am well aware oftheir pain, rage and despair. However, asmuch as I understand everything theyare going through during these days andeverything they will face as a result ofthe necessary decision to be made in theKnesset today, I also believe in thenecessity of taking the step of disen-gagement in these areas, with all thepain it entails, and I am determined tocomplete this mission. I am firmly con-vinced and truly believe that this disen-gagement will strengthen Israel’s holdover territory which is essential to ourexistence, and will be welcomed andappreciated by those near and far,reduce animosity, break through boy-cotts and sieges, and advance us alongthe path of peace with the Palestiniansand our other neighbors.

“I am accused of deceiving the peo-ple and the voters because I am takingsteps which are in total opposition topast things I have said and deeds I havedone. This is a false accusation. Both

during the elections and as PrimeMinister, I have repeatedly and publiclysaid that I support the establishment ofa Palestinian state alongside the State ofIsrael. I have repeatedly and openly saidthat I am willing to make painful com-promises in order to put an end to thisongoing and malignant conflict betweenthose who struggle over this land, andthat I would do my utmost in order tobring peace.

“And I wish, Mr. Chairman, to saythat many years before, in 1988, in ameeting with Prime Minister YitzhakShamir and with the ministers of theLikud, I said there that I believe that ifwe do not want to be pushed back tothe 1967 lines, the territory should bedivided.”

In a successful effort to win the votesof a majority of recalcitrant Likud backbenchers and to admonish his oppo-nents in the religious right-wing,Sharon invoked the hallowed name offormer prime minister MenachemBegin as a way to affirm the priority ofhis nationalist credentials and to cautionagainst religious messianism.

“I wish to end with a quotation fromPrime Minister Menachem Begin, whoat the end of December 1977, said onthis podium (and I quote):

‘I once said, during an argument withpeople from Gush Emunim, that I lovethem today, and will continue to likethem tomorrow. I told them: you are

Arabic and Hebrew translations ofrecent Settlement Reports can be viewedat www.fmep.org.

REPORT ON

ISRAELI SETTLEMENTIN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

A B i m o n t h l y P u b l i c a t i o n o f t h e Fo u n d a t i o n f o r M i d d l e E a s t Pe a c e

Volume 14 Number 6 November-December 2004

SHARON PURSUES DISENGAGEMENT,BUSH DEMANDS PALESTINIAN DEMOCRACY

See our website for recentarticles, reports, maps, andpictures: www.fmep.org.

——— ◆ ———

Also in this issue:

Israel’s New Roadmap 3Settlement Time Line 4Settlement Update 8

SHARON, continued on page 5

TO OUR READERSFOUNDATION FOR

MIDDLE EAST PEACE

Merle Thorpe, Jr.Founder

(1917–1994)

Philip C. Wilcox, Jr.President

Geoffrey AronsonDirector, Research and Publications, Editor, Report onIsraeli Settlement in the OccupiedTerritories

Ashely BrottEditorial Assistant

Joyce IbrahimSharon Larsen

Interns

TRUSTEES

Lucius D. BattleLandrum R. BollingCalvin H. Cobb, Jr.James J. CromwellPeter GubserStephen HartwellRichard S.T. MarshRichard W. MurphyJean C. NewsomGail PressbergWilliam B. QuandtNicholas A. Veliotes

The Foundation, a non-profit I.R.C. 501(c)(3)organization, supports peaceand security for Israelis andPalestinians through mutualrecognition and a negotiateddivision of historic Pales-tine. It publishes the bi-monthly Report on IsraeliSettlement in the OccupiedTerritories.

Copyright © 2004

2 ❖ Report on Israeli Settlement November-December 2004

The stars are never perfectly aligned fora breakthrough toward Israeli-Palestinianpeace, but the environment today offersnew opportunities. The death of YasserArafat has removed the “no partner” argu-ment that Prime Minister Ariel Sharonhad used to avoid negotiations. Palestinianpresidential elections in January 2005should give a new president stature to reen-gage in peace talks and reform. MahmoudAbbas, who appears likely to win, is a prag-matic moderate. He opposes violence, andis now seeking a cease-fire with HAMAS.

Sharon now leads a minority govern-ment, and must rely on the Labor Party tosurvive in office and implement his Gazadisengagement plan. For the first time,Sharon has said he would coordinate theplan with the Palestinians.

Here at home, there is growing supportfor renewed American leadership. Leadersof the two largest American Jewish syna-gogue unions and 71 other Jewish leadershave written to President Bush supporting

more aggressive diplomacy, including a set-tlement freeze. An Op-Ed in the New YorkTimes by former Secretary of State JamesBaker urged a stronger peace effort, andthere are other signs that a new initiativefrom Washington would enjoy wide publicsupport.

To lose this opportunity would be tragic.Yet, as Jeff Aronson points out in thisReport, Sharon is still determined to pre-serve Israel’s settlements and domination inthe West Bank and to defeat Palestinianaspirations for a genuine, sovereign state.Although President Bush has promised towork for a Palestinian state, he and hisadvisors are still emphasizing democraticreform as the key to statehood and peace.Thus far they have said little about the noless important need for evacuating settle-ments and negotiating viable borders.

TO OUR READERS

Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon is determined to leave alegacy maximizing Israel’s territorial interests that his succes-sors will have no choice but to sustain. Settlement expansionthroughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem remains hisenduring trademark. The disengagement plan for the GazaStrip is another element in this strategy, as are the separationbarrier, the emasculation of the Palestinian Authority, and theclosure economy imposed after Israel’s military reoccupationof Areas A and B in the West Bank in April 2002.

In recent months, the Sharon government has without fan-fare proposed yet another element in this design—the“Continuous Movement Plan” for Palestinians, which like theothers noted above, aims at consolidating Israel’s permanenthold on about half of the West Bank and its strategic domina-tion of the remaining territories conquered in June 1967.

The plan is meant to answer the strategic problem inherentin the territorial framework defined in the Oslo II agreementand exacerbated by the heightened security needs of manyWest Bank settlements resulting from the four-year-oldPalestinian intifada—how to enable Palestinians to travelbetween the territorial islands formalized by Oslo—Areas Aand B, comprising about 40 percent of the West Bank—onroads not used by settlers. Sharon has described his objectiveas assuring “transportation continuity” for Palestinians inthese areas, where Israel favors a form of Palestinian self-ruleand ersatz independence.

Sharon’s new plan for a separate Palestinian network out-lines 52 possible road projects and 16 new crossroads andjunctions, including bridges and underpasses spanning settlerthoroughfares. Israel describes it as “a social-political stabilizer[that] creates an environment for support of the disengage-ment plan.”

The plan reveals Sharon’s intention to remain in all WestBank settlements with the exception of four small localities inthe Jenin area that are slated for evacuation in 2005 as part ofthe disengagement plan. Turning a tactical decision to denyPalestinians use of many West Bank roads into a permanentstrategic objective is yet another element in Israel’s ever-evolving strategy of creating facts on the ground.

The road network in place when Israel occupied the WestBank in 1967 ran north-south down the region’s hilly centralspine. Lateral roads ran off this central artery—Route 60—from Jenin to Hebron. Ninety-three percent of all roads werepaved.

This transportation network reflected the requirements ofthe Palestinian community rather than those of an occupyingarmy embarking upon creation of scores of Israeli civilian set-tlements. In 1970 Israel began construction of roads runningeast-west, as part of an integrated security package that aimedat connecting Israel with new Jordan Valley settlements andfacilitating its military control of the Jordan Valley.

Settlement expansion during the 1970s concentrated onestablishing settlements in strategically and historically signif-

icant locales. The success of this program lead in 1984 to thepublication of Road Plan 50, the crystallization of Israel’sintention to construct a dedicated network of roads to facili-tate settlement expansion.

In an unsuccessful objection to the plan before Israel’sHigh Court, Palestinian attorney Raja Shehadeh argued that“the way the roads have been designed means that Palestiniantowns and villages will be greatly restricted in their develop-ment, with many roads creating tight rings around their exist-ing boundaries.”

Israel did not attempt to establish a security rationale forthe plan in its arguments before the court. Indeed the courtruled, however improbably, that the proposed network ofbypass roads would benefit the local population.

The Palestinian rebellion against Israeli rule that eruptedin 1987 focused on attacking settler vehicles with stones. By1990, Road Plan 50 had evolved into the “intifada bypass”road plan. The uprising fortified the Israeli view of the neces-sity to create a transport network for a growing settler popula-tion separate and distinct from the one serving Palestinians.

In 1990 100 kilometers of new roads were paved in theWest Bank alone to serve settlements including Beitar, Dolev,Hermesh, Karnei Shomron, Kedar, Otniel, Revava, Shani, andTalmon Bet.

By 1992, the Ministry of Housing and Construction’sGreat Roads Plan—the new name given to Plan 50—outlined400km of new West Bank roads, including bypasses aroundHalhul, Hebron, Ramallah, and Nablus.

The Olso process dressed up the original bypass road planin politically correct clothing, but changed neither the plan’sdimensions nor its objectives. What did change was the publicrationale. No longer were these bypass roads justified by Israelfor their value to Palestinians. Indeed there were suggestionsthat Palestinians would be prohibited from driving on themaltogether. The bypass road plan became part of the Oslo“peace” package, intended to increase settlers’ sense of security.This idea was now viewed positively by some Oslo supportersas a confirmation of Israel’s disengagement from parts of theWest Bank. The Clinton administration considered theseroads security-related expenditures and refused to deductIsrael’s investments in these roads from its loan guarantees.

Veteran Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea reflected theviews of those who rejected this complacent assessment. Heobserved in an October 7, 1994, article in Yediot Aharonot thatthe plan was an “absurd Israeli idea [that] shows how verydeep Israeli pessimism runs concerning the entire peaceprocess. Israeli faith that any coexistence will be established isso small that the Israeli establishment does not even believethat Jewish settlers and Palestinians can share the same road.”

The al-Aqsa intifada accelerated the separation inherent inthe original Road Plan 50 and its successors . . . and more.

November-December 2004 Report on Israeli Settlement ❖ 3

ISRAEL PROPOSES A SEPARATE ROAD NETWORK FOR PALESTINIANS

ISRAEL, continued on page 7

4 ❖ Report on Israeli Settlement November-December 2004

July 2 Yerushalim reports that Jewish prop-erty owners in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter—one thousand buildings on 137 dunams—may now register their ownership directly inthe land registry rather than in the name ofthe government body that has administeredconstruction in the area since 1967.

July 4 Since the cancellation of specialincentives in March, the sale of dwellings inHar Homa decreased to 42 units fromMarch to May, the lowest rate in three years.320 units were sold annually in 2000 and2001, rising to 482 units in 2003. (Ha’aretz)

July 5 Israel’s Central Bureau of Statisticsreports that the settler population in theWest Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) andGaza Strip increased to 231,800 at the endof 2003, an annual increase of 5.3 percent,higher than anywhere in Israel. (Ha’aretz)

At a news conference with Israeli foreignminister Silvan Shalom, U.S. Secretary ofState Colin Powell criticizes Israel for the“disappointing” pace at which Israel has dis-mantled settlement outposts in the WestBank. Shalom says that Israel is working todismantle the remaining 28 unauthorizedoutposts (according to government calcula-tions) “in the near future.” (Reuters)

July 13 Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharonacknowledges that Israel “has not yet ful-filled its commitment [to dismantle out-posts] in the best manner.” He promises thatit is Israel’s intention to fulfill these commit-ments as soon as possible. (Ha’aretz)

Israeli police in Hebron open an investiga-tion into settlers from Maon Farm suspectedof poisoning a well in the nearby villageAtwanna with animal carcasses. (Ha’aretz)

July 14 In preparation for disengagementfrom Gaza, the Israeli Housing Ministryfreezes granting government mortgages forapartments in the Katif bloc. In addition, afreeze is put on the sale or rental of govern-ment housing apartments in the Katif bloc.(Yedioth Ahronoth)

July 15 The municipality freezes a plan forthe construction of 200 dwelling units in theEast Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhood ofas-Sawahra. A lawyer representing the vil-lagers complains that as a consequence “thedialogue between the residents and the citywill be conducted through housing demoli-tion orders rather than through organizedplanning.” (Kol Ha’ir)

July 16 Fifty families emigrating fromFrance are taken upon their arrival in Israelto a language center in the settlement ofOfra. (Yediot Aharanot)

July 20 The IDF demolishes 12 Palestinianhouses as part of the re-construction of theseparation barrier closer to the Green Linein eastern Barta’a. (Ha’aretz)

July 22 The Israel Land Administration(ILA) sells 11 lots, zoned for 682 apart-ments, in the Har Homa settlement nearJerusalem for $26 million, including devel-opment. The winners of the land tenders payan average of $38,000 per apartment.

The ILA plans to sell 1,815 plots of land inthe West Bank (Beitar Illit-604, Har Gilo-200, Ariel-214, Immanuel-98, and KiryatArba-156) by year-end. Many Jewish fami-lies from southern Florida have expressedinterest in relocating to a 200-unit housingproject in Nofim, 5km from Ariel. (Ma’ariv)

July 23 The owner of an antiquities muse-um in Hebron registers a claim against Israelfor damages of $15,000 as a result of thedestruction of his museum by settlers in July2002. (Kol Ha’ir)

July 25 One hundred thirty thousandIsraelis protest the government’s disengage-ment plan. (Ha’aretz)

July 27 A new plan issued by IsraeliAgriculture Minister Yisrael Katz and draft-ed in conjunction with the Jewish Agency’ssettlement branch, calls for the planting of72,000 olive trees on 2,500 dunams of landnear settlements in order to exclude theseareas from Palestinian control. The Agricul-ture Ministry will offer a financial incentiveto those who plant and tend the groves.“This is a way to hold the land and to pre-vent its transfer to Palestinians,” explainedKatz. (Yedioth Ahronoth)

Some of the 200 French immigrants toIsrael relocate to the West Bank settlementof Ariel, following the 2003 trend in whichsix percent of immigrants move to settle-ments in the West Bank. (Ma’ariv)

July 28 Plans are underway to establish aRussians-only settlement in an undecidedlocation in the Jordan Valley. The WorldZionist Organization’s Settlement Divisionand the Jordan Valley Regional Council bothsupport the project, which envisions buildingan industrial center with a waste recycling

plant at its core, and offers new options toRussian immigrant scientists who have notfound their place in Israeli society. The“Aliyah Battalion”, a group of officers whoserved in the Russian army and volunteer toreinforce West Bank settlements, as well asforeign investors, have also joined the proj-ect. (Yedioth Ahronoth)

July 29 Head of the separation barrierproject in the Israeli Defense Ministry,Nezah Mashiah states that the new route forthe barrier will place the Etzion bloc on thewestern (Israeli) side. The Etzion bloc isabout 6 miles southeast of Jerusalem and hasa population of 40,000.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem sellsalmost 24 acres of land, located in the north-Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods of BeitHanina and Shuafat, to a Palestinian Au-thority company for $1.1 million. (Arutz 7)

August 2 The Israeli Defense Ministryannounces the approval of 600 new housingunits in Ma’ale Adumim. Prime MinisterAriel Sharon and Defense Minister ShaulMofaz had approved the plan two monthsearlier. (Ha’aretz)

Defense Minister Mofaz declares thatMa’ale Adumim and the Etzion bloc will beincluded on the western side of the separa-tion barrier. During a visit to the former,Mofaz is presented with a plan to double thesettlement’s population to 60,000 in threeyears. He notes that the new route of thebarrier north of Jerusalem will result in theinclusion of 7,000 dunams west of the barri-er, not 24,000 dunams as originally planned.(Ha’aretz)

August 3 Israel’s Central Bureau ofStatistics reports the sale of only 67 new pri-vate sector dwellings in the West Bank andGaza Strip from January to May 2004. Thefigure represents a reduction of 40 percentcompared to the same period in 2003. The170 settlement dwellings for sale total 1.5percent of all available new housing forIsraelis. (Ma’ariv)

August 5 The Israel Defense Forces end amonth-long invasion of Beit Hanun, in thenorthern Gaza Strip, leaving more than42,000 olive, citrus, and date trees uprooted,4,405 acres of orchards, vineyards, and veg-etable fields flattened, 21 houses demolishedand 314 damaged, and 5 factories and 19

SETTLEMENT TIME LINE

TIME LINE, continued on page 7

wonderful pioneers, builders of the land, settlers on barrensoil, in rain and through winter, through all difficulties.However, you have one weakness—you have developedamong yourselves a messianic complex.

“You must remember that there were days, before you wereborn or were only small children, when other people riskedtheir lives day and night, worked and toiled, made sacrificesand performed their tasks without a hint of a messianic com-plex. And I call on you today, my good friends from GushEmunim, to perform your tasks with no less modesty thanyour predecessors, on other days and nights.

“We do not require anyone tosupervise the Kashrut of our com-mitment to the Land of Israel! Wehave dedicated our lives to the landof Israel and to the struggle for itsliberation, and will continue to doso.’”

Disengagement Progresses

In the wake of the Knesset’sendorsement, on November 3 theKnesset passed by a similar marginthe first (of three) votes on anevacuation-compensation law.

These two votes signal a grow-ing political and operationalmomentum in favor of the plan’simplementation, a reality that wasnot lost on the 1,500 settler fami-lies who will be forced to relocateby September 1, 2005, whatevertheir views of the plan. Ha’aretzreported that “many of the [settlements’] residents have begunto look for a solution to the day after [withdrawal]. Eventhose considered implacable opponents of the plan are todayless determined to struggle. ‘Last week,’ one explained, ‘Welost our last opportunity to stop the plan.’”

The death of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat has raised theprospect of a renewal of negotiations according to the roadmap, the plan endorsed by international community as thediplomatic vehicle for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Sharonconsiders his disengagement plan as an Israeli substitute forthis more onerous initiative. In a September 15 YediotAharonot interview he explained, “[Labor leader Amram]Mitzna suggested [during his unsuccessful campaign to unseatSharon] to begin with the evacuation of Netzarim and to con-tinue evacuating [settlements] according to the road map.This would bring Israel to a most difficult situation. To this Idid not agree. And today as well we are not proceedingaccording to the Road map. I am not ready for this.”

Sharon’s public rejection of the road map went unnoticed.His dismissal of the plan, however, was not unknown nor

viewed unsympathetically in the Bush administration. Alongwith the Quartet, Washington is content to marry the disen-gagement plan to the scheme Sharon meant it to replace.Elliot Abrams, Bush’s regional advisor on the NationalSecurity Council, was reported on November 12 by Ha’aretzcorrespondent Aluf Ben to have told a senior Israeli securityofficial in November, “You have to get out of Gaza and thenwait ten years for the growth of a new generation ofPalestinian leaders.” Such views are not inconsistent with thesimilar if more colorful analysis by former Sharon aide DovWeisglass, who said that in the wake of disengagement fromGaza, the road map “will be preserved for a very lengthy peri-od . . . in formaldehyde.” His comments forced Sharon to

declare his fidelity to the moribundplan.

Bush Pushes Democratization

More significant, PresidentGeorge W. Bush himself stillseems convinced that the demo-cratic bone fides of a Palestinianregime, rather than its territorialdimensions, are the key point ofdeparture for U.S. policy. Asked ata November 12 White House pressconference with British prime min-ister Tony Blair about U.S. interestin a settlement freeze, Bush repliedwith numerous variations on theneed for “a free, truly democraticsociety in the Palestinian territoriesthat become a state.” Blair’sresponse evinced even less interestin the territorial dimension ofPalestinian statehood: “What we’re

really saying this morning is that [a] viable state has to be ademocratic state.” ◆

November-December 2004 Report on Israeli Settlement ❖ 5

SHARON, continued from page 1

When the prime minster saysthat we cannot continue to rule overa foreign people, this means that Iam sitting here not by right but asan occupier. If I am here as an occu-pier I cannot continue to live hereunder any circumstances. If this istrue today about [the West Banksettlement of ] Ariel, tomorrow itwill also be true about the entirestate of Israel.

Ron Nachman, mayor of Ariel,Ma’ariv Friday Supplement,

October 29, 2004

PLANNING FOR EVACUATIONThe Israel Defense Forces is devoting considerable

resources to planning its operational deployment when theevacuation of settlements begins next summer. These plansinclude occupying more Palestinian land in order to facilitatethe evacuation of settlements and other Israeli-occupiedlocales. Some weeks ago the IDF presented a plan to createwidened “security perimeters” around all settlements slatedfor evacuation. According to Ha’aretz, “The IDF suggestedthat it conquer territorial buffers around settlements sched-uled for evacuations, in order to remove them from the rangeof Palestinian fire.” IDF maps of these new “security perime-ters” were submitted to Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz andPrime Minister Ariel Sharon, who are reported to haveapproved the plan. ◆

6 ❖ Report on Israeli Settlement November-December 2004

November-December 2004 Report on Israeli Settlement ❖ 7

wells destroyed. Losses are estimated to beas much as $93 million. (Independent)

August 6 Israel signs an agreement withthe European Commission to begin labelingall goods for export with their town of originand nationality. Products from settlements inthe West Bank and Gaza Strip will becharged a duty, while goods made in Israelwill remain duty-free under Israel’s free tradeagreement with the EU. (Arutz 7)

August 7 Israeli Defense Ministry officialsexpress concern that a drop in kindergartenenrollment in Palestinian villages near Jeru-salem indicates the intention of tens ofthousands of Palestinians to move to EastJerusalem so they will not be left outside theseparation barrier being built around the city.More than 70,000 Palestinians live in dis-tricts that are to be outside the barrier.(Ma’ariv International)

August 13 A Palestinian Authority para-military police officer shoots and kills thesecurity officer of Itamar. (Arutz 7)

August 17 Ha’aretz publishes tendersissued by the Israeli Ministry of Housingand Construction for the construction of 604dwelling units in the settlement of Betar Ilit,214 in Ariel, 141 in Ma’ale Adumim, and 42in Karne Shomron. According to the actingminister of housing, Tzipi Livne, this settle-ment expansion is being undertaken inaccordance with an understanding with theU.S. government about the continuation ofconstruction in large settlement blocs.

August 19 For two hours settlers blocksupporters of “Women Supporting the Evac-uation of Gaza” as they attempt to leave theGaza settlement of Rafiah Yam. (Ha’aretz)

August 20 Jewish landowners in EastJerusalem’s Bet Safafa district announce theconstruction of a new neighborhood com-prising 200 dwelling units. One developerdid not rule out marketing the project toPalestinians. (Yerushalim)

August 25 The YESHA Council publishesa call for public opposition to the evacuationof the Givat Assaf outpost near Bet El in

the West Bank. The IDF removes two cara-vans from the Nofe Nechmia outpost.(Ha’aretz)

Israeli officials begin site visits to Gaza set-tlements to ascertain the value of settlementassets. (Ma’ariv)

August 28 Ma’ariv reports the governmentof Brazil’s refusal to approve the adoption ofBrazilian children by Israeli residents of theoccupied territories.

August 30 The IDF opens the Kalkilya—Habla tunnel to accommodate the construc-tion of the separation barrier and the inclu-sion of the settlement of Alfe Menashe onits western side. (Ha’aretz)

August 31 The Jerusalem Post reports thatAlfe Menashe is building a new settlementarea, Nof Hasharon, three kilometers distantand next to the Israeli town of Nirit, fromwhich it will draw services. Plots of land sellfor $120,000 to $140,000, and ten buyershave already placed deposits. Nirit residentsoppose development of the area and the useof their service infrastructure.

The extensive new Israeli network constructed during the1990s failed to make settlements entirely independent of thehistorical network of West Bank roads. During the intifada, inorder to maintain a normal, everyday life for settlers, Israelhas restricted and sometimes prohibited Palestinian travel onmany of these roads, a key feature of the “closure economy.”In order to protect settlers, Palestinians have been separatednot only from the new bypass road network, they have alsobeen denied use of roads as old as Palestine itself.

Israel’s solution to this untenable situation establishes yetanother milestone along the long road of occupation. Havingconstructed, at a cost of more than $2 billion, a bypass roadnetwork, which now includes major sections of the historicalsystem, most notably large sections of Route 60, the Sharongovernment in August presented a plan for foreign donors tofinance the rebuilding, construction, and establishment ofunderpasses, overpasses, junctions, and roads throughout theWest Bank as alternatives to routes on which the IDF hasforbidden Palestinian traffic and to others cut by the separa-tion barrier.

Like the original Road Plan 50, today’s ContinuousMovement Plan is presented as beneficial to Palestinians. TheIsraeli plan—which Palestinians have had no role in prepar-ing—is portrayed as an instrument of Palestinian economicrevival made necessary because of the inadequacy of existinginfrastructure. No mention is made that the existing infra-structure is inadequate principally because of Israel’s dracon-ian closure policy and the denial of Palestinian use of majorsegments of the road network improved for settlers.

There is no more revealing commentary of the plan’s intentthan the matter-of-fact claim that “Wadi Nar is the mainroute connecting the north of the West Bank to the south.”Implicit in this observation is the Israeli view that Route 60—from time immemorial the core north-south transit waythrough Jerusalem, and a long-sought after objective of settle-ments along its route, is now closed to Palestinians. The WadiNar route, which runs from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, is a dan-gerous, narrow two-lane road that Palestinians are forced touse to travel north from Bethlehem.

Creation of separate road networks for Palestinians andsettlers is yet another element of a long-term program aimedat the permanent physical division of the West Bank. It aimsat subordinating Palestinian national and economic develop-ment to the maintenance of an expansive and unrestrictedprogram of Israeli settlement in 60 percent of the West Bank,and undermining the prospect of a territorially coherent stateof Palestine.

There is no doubt that a continuous, unobstructed trans-port network is vital to Palestinian political and economic life.A rational plan would modernize the venerable Route 60 asthe key to a regional road network. The ever-growing de-mands of the West Bank settlement enterprise however, pre-clude this logical option. Instead Israel is demanding the cre-ation of a inferior system at great expense. The high price thatIsrael is demanding from the international community, whichIsrael expects to fund this enterprise, and from Palestinianswho are expected to permanently accommodate their dailylives to Israel’s settlements, leaves one breathless. ◆

ISRAEL, continued from page 3

TIME LINE, continued from page 4

Foundation for Middle East Peace1761 N Street, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20036Telephone: 202-835-3650Fax: 202-835-3651E-mail: info@fmep.orgInternet: http://www.fmep.org

FIRST CLASSUS POSTAGE

PAIDMERRIFIELD, VAPERMIT #2333

“The settlement outposts worry us a great deal, and we were happy to let the Americans leadthe dialogue with Israel regarding upholding its commitments in the framework of the road map[evacuating all of the settlement outposts built since March 2001]. But not a thing happened.Ignoring for a moment the expansion of construction in Ma’ale Adumim, how is it possible tobuild a two-state model at a time that Israel is building infrastructures for additional settlements,paving a road from Ariel to the Jordan Rift, and linking Ma’ale Adumim to the Ben-GurionAirport highway? How is all this compatible with the principle of a Palestinian state that is terri-torially contiguous?”

Marc Otte, European Union special representative for the Middle East peace process, Ha’aretz, October 29, 2004

PROMISES, PROMISES“Israel will not finance the growth of the Jewish popula-

tion in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] from the publicbudget; it will not construct new communities and will freezeconstruction in existing communities, except for constructionwithin a line of existing construction (to distinguish from the[much larger] border of municipal jurisdiction); it will notconfiscate or take new land for settlement purposes in Judea,Samaria, and the Gaza District.”

Reported by Dov Weisglass, cabinet bureau chief to the government legal advisor Menachem Mazuz,

June 12, 2003 after discussions with U.S. NSC advisor Condoleezza Rice,

Ha’aretz, September 29, 2004

PICTURES DON’T LIEBased upon an

aerial survey inAugust, settlementexpansion activity isunder way at 80West Bank settle-ments where 3,700dwelling units areunder construction.The total areainvolved in thisexpansion is about808,000 squaremeters, a 60 percentincrease from a Junesurvey, and includesnew and continuing

land development for settlement, new infrastructure, new andcontinuing construction, internal road works, and the place-ment of new caravans.

Settlement Expansion,July-August 2004

Settlement/Council Expansion (m2) Jordan Valley 1,755 Alfe Menashe 8,909 Ariel 21,438 Ma’ale Adumim 30,790 Mount Hebron 42,820 Betar Ilit 48,700 Etzion Bloc 62,358 Shomron 105,169 Gaza Strip 202,490 Benjamin 283,822 Total 808,251