Segregated highway in West Bank

Israel has inaugurated a new highway in the occupied West Bank that features a large concrete wall segregating Israeli and Palestinian traffic.

One side of Route 4370 — located northeast of Jerusalem — will be open to Israeli vehicles only, while the other half will only be open to Palestinian traffic. Critics have branded it an “apartheid” highway, saying it is part of a segregated road system that benefits Jewish settlers.

The highway was built as part of a planned ringroad east of Jerusalem that would connect the northern and southern West Bank. Construction began in 2005, but the 5km road lay unfinished for years until 2017.

Israeli officials inaugurating the new road on on Thursday touted it as a means of better connecting West Bank settlements north of Jerusalem to the city.

Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan called the highway “an example of the ability to create co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians while guarding [against] the existing security challenges.”

The Palestinian Authority said in a statement that the “apartheid” road “poses a challenge to the credibility of the international community”.

Israel captured east Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 war, territories the Palestinians want to be part of their future state. The Palestinians and most of the international community consider Israeli settlements to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.

The eastern ring road was conceived as a means of connecting the northern and southern West Bank. Critics of the settlements fear that if the road is completed, Israel will then proceed with settlement construction in an area east of Jerusalem known as E1.

The Palestinians have long feared that construction in E1 would split the West Bank in half, making a future state inviable.