Israeli High Court Petition on Route 443 - Provides Approval for Separation and Discrimination

Written by Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)
Thursday, 20 March 2008

The meaning of the (Israeli) High Court decision regarding the petition of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel in the matter of Route 443, which prohibits travel on this road by Palestinians: for the first time in its history, the Israeli High Court gave a decision that provides approval for separate roads for Palestinians and Israelis, with no security need and in blatant violation of the laws of occupation.
On 5 March 2008, the (Israeli) High Court held a hearing of the petition submitted by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) against the Minister of Defence, the Central Military Commander and Commander of the Binyamin Division, in the wake of the demand to annul the prohibition placed on Palestinians from traveling on Route 443. The petition was submitted by ACRI Attorney Lee in March 2007, on behalf of residents of the six Palestinian villages adjacent to Route 443, whose daily life has been badly affected by this prohibition of travel, which is the primary and sole road in their area. The petitioners are only a small part of the entire Palestinian population badly affected by the closing of this road to them.
The petition was heard by President of the Israeli High Court, Dorit Beinish and Judges Edmund Levy and Uzi Fogelman. At the conclusion of the hearing, the court gave an interim decision that the Respondents must update the court within six months on progress in paving the “fabric of life” road. This decision essentially provides a green light to the military to pave separate roads for Palestinians, which means—unprecedented provision by the High Court for polices of separation and discrimination in movement, a policy that has already been dubbed “apartheid.” If the judges had indeed intended, as they are obligated to do, to seriously weigh the legal argument raised by the petition, there would have been no reason to approve the continued paving of the “fabric of life” road, which entails the additional confiscation and destruction of land and costs of tens of millions of shekels. For the first time in its history, the Israeli High Court gave a decision that provides approval for separate roads for Palestinians and Israelis, with no security need and in blatant violation of the laws of occupation. It should be recalled that this is not a decision given in the interim stages of litigation, but only after both sides rested.
Route 443 was paved on lands confiscated from Palestinian residents, maintaining that it was required for the transportation needs of the Palestinians in the West Bank. The road did indeed serve the Palestinians for a period of time, but from 2000 began a gradual process of transforming the road into one for Israelis only. This is in total contradiction to international law, which permits land confiscation only for the needs of the local population or for protecting the forces of the occupier.
In a hearing of the petition, ACRI attorneys Limor Yehuda and Dan Yakir noted that Route 443 primarily serves the residents of Israel in connecting between Jerusalem and the coastal region, the goal of which is the comfort of the these drivers, and has no connection to security needs. With the approval provided by the military commander for improper use of private lands confiscated from the Palestinian residents, he deviated from his legal authority both under Israeli law and international law. With the approval given by the judges to the commander for paving bypass roads for the Palestinians, for the first time in its history they are approving a policy of separation on the basis of group belonging, through discrimination against the protected residents of the occupied territory.
ACRI expresses deep concern about the decision of the Israeli High Court judges, not only because of its content, which as noted means approving an illegal and immoral policy that is most dangerous, in a manner that could be a precedent for approving additional expansive and grave violations of human rights, if only because of the renunciation of any appropriate judicial process: even though this is a substantive decision, it was given without any reasons and by completely ignoring the primary arguments raised by the petitioners. In this, the decision violates the right of the petitioners to receive a ruling in their case, and to receive a detailed response by the court to the question of whether the actions of the respondents today, and not in some future time, are or are not legal.
ACRI further emphasizes that the fabric of life road, that is intended to provide an alternative for the Palestinian residents of the region, leaves hundreds of thousands of residents in the area without appropriate answers for their transportation needs.
(Originally published in Hebrew by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel , translated to English by the Alternative Information Center).