How the Palestinian Authority is building the Israeli roads that kill their future

This is the kind of story that should be read by anybody who actually believes that the US-backed Palestinian Authority will bring freedom to its people in 2011. Or ever.

The article in The Nation shows how the PA is actively killing its own chances of statehood and entrenching the Zionist occupation. Perhaps the long list of Western reporters who visit Ramallah and praise its leadership (Roger Cohen in the New York Times is but the latest) would like to actually get past the talking points:

For decades Israel has carried out its own infrastructure projects in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. These include a segregated road network that, together with the separation wall Israel began building in 2002, divides Palestinian areas from each other while bringing the settlements–all of which are illegal under international law–closer to Israel.

Now, armed with information from United Nations sources and their own research, Palestinian nongovernmental organizations are raising the alarm. Their evidence spotlights the extent to which PA road-building is facilitating the Israeli goal of annexing vast areas of the West Bank–making a viable Palestinian state impossible.

Roads currently under construction in the Bethlehem governorate are a prime example, as they will complete the separation of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, which includes some of the earliest Israeli settlements, from the Palestinian West Bank, swallowing up more pieces of Bethlehem on the way. The PA is building these roads with funding from the US Agency for International Development and thus ultimately the US taxpayer.

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

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