Israelis-only roads

Following a link in Lawrence of Cyberia's post, I read this article about Palestinians suing for the right to use a road built on land confiscated from them. Who is allowed to use which roads is a big issue here. In the years that I have lived here, the Israelis built a highway past our house. They took land that used to be a shallow valley where the bedu lived and grazed their flocks. They turned the valley onto a hill, built a road on top of it, and then placed high walls all around it. It goes right through our neighborhood, but we have no access to it. Most of the people living in this village would not be allowed on it. It was built for the settlers to get from their settlements into Jerusalem without having to drive on the same roads as us.

I took this picture from my front yard last fall, when they were putting up some "prettier" wall outside of the wall that was already around the road. Notice the big red truck in the picture? That's the normal ground level. And it is a big truck, but the hill they built to put the road on is huge.


This system of Israeli-only roads, walls and check points leads to daily stress and frustration for every Palestinian. It is not really something to be lightly joked about, no matter what president Bush thinks.