1/9 “Highway to Annexation,” a new report Maya Rosen and I published, details extensive Israeli road development in the WB. These projects advance de facto annexation, promote segregation, suburbanize settlements and fragment Palestinian territory.
https://tinyurl.com/highwayannexation

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2/9 Infrastructure capacity is what enables settlement growth. That is why, in addition to tracking new housing units, it is crucial that we also follow developments in infrastructure planning and construction.

3/9 Israeli authorities have long recognized the importance of road and transportation construction for furthering the settlement enterprise and have prioritized West Bank road construction because of this.

4/9 Lateral roads, accounting for many of the current WB road projects, create settler corridors deep in the WB and territorial contiguity between the Jordan Valley and sovereign Israel. This fragments Palestinian territory while integrating the WB and Israeli highway systems.

5/9 Bypass roads, which allow settlers to circumvent Palestinian centers, contribute to suburbanizing settlements. They allow settlers to drive on modern highways w/o seeing Palestinians or feeling they’re in foreign territory and make for faster commutes to jobs in Israel.

6/9 Bypass roads are the central reason that the settler population in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) has more than tripled since the signing of the Oslo Accords. Settler leadership knew this would be the case. See the great @LaraFriedmanDC:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/reflections-on-the-death-of-the-peace-process/

7/9 Thousands of dunam of Palestinian land will be expropriated (read: stolen) in order to build these roads and will pave the way for the next hundreds of thousands of settlers. Palestinian farming land will be bulldozed and destroyed for this purpose.

8/9 There is a reason former Minister of Transportation Bezalel Smotrich termed his plans “sovereignty through transportation.” Israel is using transportation construction to advance de facto annexation at an unprecedented and devastating scale.

9/9 The map below shows our future -- a future that entrenches occupation and continues to squeeze Palestinians into shrinking and isolated enclaves. Intervention on this issue is necessary if we are to work towards an end to apartheid and a reality of equality in this land. END