WITNESS-On the road again, a commuter's journey to Jerusalem
Source: Reuters
By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM, Dec 21 (Reuters) - I'm back on the highway of death. Please don't tell my wife. When the Palestinian uprising began in 2000, I made a simple calculation about my morning drive to work in Jerusalem from my home about 30 km (18 miles) away in Maccabim. A bullet fired by an automatic rifle can cover up to 1,200 metres (5,000 feet) per second. At least that's what the encyclopedia says. That was a whole lot faster than my Japanese car at the time, even one built by the company that made the zippy Zero fighter plane in World War Two, could travel. So when the bullets and petrol bombs started flying on Highway 443, a four-lane, smoothly paved road that cuts through the occupied West Bank and links Israel's coastal plain to Jerusalem, I opted for a longer but safer route. It's called Highway 1, the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road that twists and turns through steep hills, skirting the West Bank, and where tailgating drivers follow a cardinal rule: if there's space, occupy it. Foreigners visiting Israel often find that disconcerting. Veterans of Israeli roads have long stopped staring into their rearview mirrors. It was a time-consuming, stressful climb to the holy city for six years, though a mere inconvenience compared with tough travel restrictions Israel imposed on the Palestinians in the face of suicide bombings that tore buses and restaurants apart. Drivers who used to speed along Highway 443 and coast into Jerusalem during the morning rush hour opted for Highway 1, turning the commute into a crawl and the entrance to the city into a parking lot. All is quiet now on Highway 443, and I'm on the road again (despite my wife's advice to the contrary) after a sharp drop in Palestinian attacks inside Israel and along that route. Israeli traffic is back, at least during daylight hours -- with what some might call a vengeance. And that could be because Palestinian traffic is not. BARRIERS Concrete barriers placed by the Israeli army now block off access roads linking 443 to the clutch of Palestinian villages running alongside, a response the military says stems from security threats over recent years. Palestinian drivers have to navigate winding back roads to get to destinations they used to reach in minutes. Ironically, interim peace agreements had designated Highway 443 as part of the "safe passage", a route that was to have linked the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and facilitated the movement of Palestinians between the two territories. Instead, the roadside is now dotted with tall wire fences and concrete walls to shield motorists at points where security planners believe they could come under attack. Just past my community, which is only metres (yards) from the West Bank, stand what strangers to this region might mistake as tollbooths on 443. But soldiers man the concrete structures, straddling the line where the West Bank ends and Israel begins. They peer into Israeli cars slowed by speed bumps for any Palestinian passengers, rarely ordering any of the vehicles to stop. In 2002, a woman suicide bomber blew herself up at the roadblock. I phoned in the news story from the roof of my house, where I could watch events unfold after police quickly cut off access to the site. Citing security concerns, Israel has sharply limited the number of work permits it issues Palestinians. But those without the coveted documents know to steer clear of the army checkpoint on 443. Groups of Palestinian labourers hike into the surrounding hills. Once they are inside Israel, they cut back towards the highway and make a mad dash across four lanes of traffic to pile into the waiting cars of Israeli contractors.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
