Daijiworld Media Network – Jerusalem

Jerusalem, May 13: Israeli authorities this week demolished dozens of Palestinian-owned shops on the outskirts of al-Eizariya town, southeast of Jerusalem, in a move linked to a controversial road project connected to nearby Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Bulldozers razed car washes, scrap metal yards, vegetable stalls and other businesses after evacuation notices were issued to shop owners last week. Appeals filed by lawyers, including before Israel’s Supreme Court, failed to halt the demolition drive.

Israeli authorities said the structures had been built illegally without permits and were obstructing the construction of a planned road aimed at improving connectivity between Palestinian towns in the area.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military body responsible for civil affairs in the West Bank, maintained that the road project was intended to reduce congestion and improve transportation for Palestinian communities.

However, Palestinian officials and anti-settlement activists alleged that the project is part of a larger Israeli plan to separate Palestinian and Israeli traffic systems in the West Bank and expand settlement infrastructure in the strategically sensitive E1 corridor.

“The shops that were demolished are where Israel is planning to build a new road that will divert all Palestinian traffic,” said Hagit Ofran of the Israeli anti-settlement organisation Peace Now.

According to critics, the new road network would reroute Palestinian vehicles away from a major highway connecting Israeli settlements to Jerusalem, effectively restricting Palestinian movement across parts of the occupied territory.

The E1 area, located between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, is considered highly contentious because development there could further divide the northern and southern West Bank, complicating prospects for a future Palestinian state.

Israel is reportedly planning to build around 3,500 housing units in the area.

Local residents said the demolitions would severely impact livelihoods. Daoud al-Jahalin, head of a nearby village council, claimed that more than 200 families depended on the affected businesses for income.

“Forty-eight years of hard work disappeared in a single day,” said shop owner Mohammad Abu Ghalieh after watching his business destroyed.

Palestinians have long argued that obtaining construction permits from Israeli authorities in the West Bank is extremely difficult, while Israeli settlements continue to expand rapidly.

Israel captured the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East war, and most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the occupied territory illegal under international law.