A new Israeli highway project now underway in Jerusalem which may add to tensions as it is cutting through the middle class Arab neighborhood of of Beit Safafa, linking a large bloc of illegal Jewish settlements to the city. City officials state that the highway is for everyone, but not everyone is in favor of this new construction.
Aviv Tatarski of Ir Amim, an organization that lobbies for equitable
treatment of Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem, states that "[the highway]
changes the geography and demography in ways that will make a two-state
solution very, very difficult.” The highway project is four kilometers
long and will complete a north-south route across the city.
This new construction is not unusual in Jerusalem as Israelis have been nonstop building in occupied east Jerusalem, the section of the city lived in by Palestinians. This new highway, while it is not favored by the Palestinians, will "link two of Israel's most contentious roads, allowing Israeli Jews
living in the southern West Bank to zip into Jerusalem and to the coastal city
of Tel Aviv with barely a stop."
This article is a great example of the oppression that the Palestinians face whilst living under Israeli governance. Even though there are residents lobbying against the new construction to municipal officials, and organizing protests, and even
petitioning Israel's Supreme Court with alternatives (Ex: move the highway underground), officials stated that "they could not hold up infrastructure development while waiting for a resolution to the decades-old Mideast conflict." While this argument does hold ground due to the fact that there is no resolution in the foreseeable future, this argument does not allow the opposition a fair hearing.
If Aviv Tatarski is correct in his statement that "[the highway]
... will make a two-state
solution very, very difficult", these construction efforts may be Israels attempt to squash the two state solution permanently.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/03/2013311183038506211.html
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