Israeli bulldozers tore down dozens of Palestinian shops on the edge of al-Eizariya, a town southeast of Jerusalem, as Israeli authorities cleared land for a settlement-linked road project in the occupied West Bank, the Associated Press reported. The demolitions took place this week, with shop owners and officials describing it as a sudden loss of businesses after legal challenges to evacuation and demolition notices.
The demolitions drew sharply different explanations. Israel said the work was required to make way for a road that would serve Palestinian communities, while Palestinian officials said the road plan was part of a broader effort to restrict Palestinian access to a new highway built for nearby Israeli settlements.
Rights groups and the internationally backed Palestinian Authority said the transportation overhaul included separate road systems for Israelis and Palestinians. They described a tunnel-and-bypass road intended to reroute Palestinian traffic away from a major highway that links nearby West Bank settlements to Jerusalem, in effect cutting off drivers from large parts of the territory.
Peace Now director Hagit Ofran said the demolished shops were in the area where Israel planned to build the new road to divert Palestinian traffic and close off the wider E1 area to Palestinians. She spoke as part of the group’s opposition to settlement expansion.
The AP said some shop owners received notices to evacuate shops built without permits less than a week before the Tuesday demolitions. Attorneys appealed those notices, including an appeal to Israel’s Supreme Court, but the demolitions went ahead.
Israeli authorities said the buildings, including car washes, scrap metal shops and vegetable stands, were built illegally and that enforcement had been pending for “several years.” The Israeli military body overseeing civil affairs in the West Bank, COGAT, said the structures obstructed construction of the planned road to connect Palestinian towns, describing the new road system as intended to address congestion and improve daily conditions for Palestinians.
Palestinians acknowledged that some shops partially blocked sidewalks and roads leading into al-Eizariya, but said getting permits for construction is nearly impossible from Israeli authorities even as settlements expand rapidly. Mohammad Abu Ghalieh, 48, described the impact of the demolitions as a drastic turnaround after years of work to build and maintain his livelihood.
Daoud al-Jahalin, head of a nearby village council, said more than 200 families would lose their incomes. He linked the demolitions and broader transportation changes to the E1 corridor, describing how the developments could affect residents’ ability to earn a living.
The E1 project remains especially contentious because it runs from the outskirts of Jerusalem deep into the occupied West Bank, critics say. Both Israeli leaders and settlement critics have said the plan would affect prospects for a contiguous Palestinian state by isolating areas and complicating north-south movement, while Israel has said it plans to build some 3,500 apartments next to the existing settlement of Maale Adumim.