- The message has been consistent: Israel believes the
US-backed road-map is the way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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- It has been repeated by Ariel Sharon and by ministers,
yet now government papers suggest that Israel intends to bypass the peace
plan, creating a Palestinian state of enclaves, surrounded by walls and
linked by tunnels and special roads.
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- Israel has released plans for the upgrade of roads and
construction of 16 tunnels which would create an 'apartheid' road network
for Palestinians in the West Bank.
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- Existing roads would be reserved for Jews, linking their
settlements to each other and to Israel. The plans came to light when Giora
Eiland, Israel's director of national security, requested international
funding for the project. At a meeting with World Bank officials, he told
them the roads would maximise freedom of movement for Palestinians without
compromising security for Jewish settlers.
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- Eiland asked for an estimated £110 million, which
would come from taxpayers in Europe, the US and Japan. The international
community unanimously rejected the request, stating they could not finance
a project not supported by the Palestinian Authority.
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- The plans would force Palestinians into circuitous travelling
routes. According to Jan de Jong, a Dutch geographer retained by the PLO
Negotiations Support Unit, a journey from Tulkarem to Nablus, which would
take 40 minutes without checkpoints, would take 73 minutes under the new
system.
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- Ghassan Khatib, the Palestinian planning minister, said
the proposals were at odds with everything the international community
had proposed for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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- 'Two communities living under different laws and regulations
with different standards of living and road networks: this is what apartheid
is all about,' he said.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1366855,00.html
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