On Thursday, Israeli occupation authorities began work on the construction of the “45” settlement road north of occupied Jerusalem. The project is part of a settlement plan aimed at linking settlements north of Jerusalem and east of Ramallah to the city, while reinforcing settler control over the surrounding areas.
اضافة اعلان
The Jerusalem Governorate reported that the road will extend from the town of Mukhmas in the east to the Qalandiya tunnel in the west, later connecting to the “443” settlement road. In its current phase, the road will span approximately 5 kilometers, forming part of a system of bypass settlement roads designed to encircle Jerusalem and reshape the surrounding geography.
The road is intended to facilitate settler movement, directly link settlement blocs north of Jerusalem and east of Ramallah to the city and inside the 1948 territories, encourage settlement, attract settlers to nearby colonies, and control the eastern and northern slopes of Jerusalem, effectively altering the region’s geographic and demographic character.
The Jerusalem Governorate noted that the project serves as a central tool to isolate occupied Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings and cut geographic continuity between northern and central West Bank, implementing the Israeli concept of “Greater Jerusalem” and imposing permanent settlement realities to support annexation and consolidate Israeli control over the city and its surroundings.
For the construction of the road, occupation authorities seized about 280 dunams of Palestinian land from the towns of Mukhmas, Jaba, Al-Ram, and Kafr Aqab north of Jerusalem through military orders, despite residents’ objections. The reported cost of the project is approximately 400 million shekels.
