The Spirit of the Internet Weekly

Shalom Aleichem, Salaamu Aleikum

Monday night, Bustan L'Shalom, United Committee of Arabs Affected by the Trans-Israel Highway, Movement to Stop the Trans-Israel Highway organized a demonstration against the Highway #6 monstrosity. 2,800 dunams stand to be confiscated from the Palestinian Israelis in the Triangle.

Palestinian Israeli cities and villages scattered throughout Israel rely heavily on agriculture. Confiscating property and destroying agricultural lands which provide sustenance to large populations aggravates the already inflamed tensions in the region. The Trans-Israel Highway is a political road, effectively choking the natural growth of cities and villages. 85% of all land confiscated for the construction of the Highway is taken from Palestinian Israelis. This is grossly disproportional to the percentage of land throughout Israel owned by Palestinians in Israel, a mere 3%.

Much of the highway has already been built, so why struggle? The highway will effectively deepen cleavages between Jews and Arabs, rich and poor, taking jobs from poor peasants and farmers, to make transportation more convenient for the rich. One of the remaining segments of the road still waiting to built, (ketah 17) happens to be in ONE OF THE MOST SENSITIVE PARTS of the country, near the border of Palestine, in the single most heavily concentrated area of Palestinian Israelis. While residents of Baka al Gharabiya and Jatt protest the road and its paltry compensation package, so too they propose a viable, proactive alternative. If the road must be built, to minimize conflict in the area, residents of Kibbutz Magal and Ma'anit are willing to give over their land to their neighbors in a logical compromise. This is an authentic 'peace proposal' generated by the people, for the people. But the Israel Lands Authority, and Derech Eretz are preventing it. Ariel Sharon's government insists that the plans move forward without changes.

Though it is never the time, now is really not the time to confiscate land. ILA is antagonizing a land scramble. To examine land expropriation and continued exacerbation of the rifts between Jews and Palestinians, let us examine the paving of this violent road, before complaining about its devastating environmental implications (to Israel's main acquifer and dwindling open spaces) after we're all sick... The Highway by-passes the Palestinian Israeli villages, making it untimely for the Palestinian Israeli locals to get on or around the highway. Before the holy land is reduced to no more than a war zone, and a consumer wasteland of asphalt, gas stations, and shopping centers… Help stop this ceaseless, racist stampeding of nature in the name of progress. As self-sufficient farmers are uprooted from houses, groves, and sustenance for yet another road, let us remember that unsustainable overdevelopment causes irreversible damage to this very fragile ecosystem. How many more avocado fields must be bulldozed to "relieve congestion and shorten travel times?"

Several hundreds were present at the demonstration. There was no media coverage.

Let us root peace by uprooting policies of land confiscation, and biased media.

Devorah Brous Bustan L'Shalom

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