What? Roads for Jews only? How could this be? Well, if you live in the West Bank (a.k.a., Judea and Samaria), you may drive anywhere you please, if you are a Jew. Palestinians are prohibited from driving on most roads. In fact, there are roads where only Jews can drive in the West Bank.
In the recent Beit Awwa Ruling, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the IDF to find some other way of protecting 150 Zionists near Beit Awwa from the nasty Arabs. The Court opined:
The closing of the road to Palestinian travel so as to prevent access from the Beit ‘Awwa junction to the village of Fuqiqis directly affected rural residents of the area – their life routine was disrupted, simple daily actions became complicated and complex.
I.e., 45,000 Arabs were isolated from the rest of the world, so the 150 Zionist unlawful immigrants could allegedly be secure. The Court did not buy this charade of an argument.
Closing the road to Palestinian vehicles in the manner described above severely infringes the rights of the local residents in a disproportionate manner. This situation violates the duty of the military commander to ensure the welfare of the local population and enable them to live normal lives, and also taking into account security needs, of which we are aware, it does not meet the test of proportionality in its narrow meaning. The security advantage attained from closing the road in the way it was done does not bear a reasonable relationship to the harm to the local residents. Furthermore – and no less important - as we pointed out above, we were not convinced that other security means were examined that could significantly reduce these infringements, even if it might entail a certain harm to the security component. In accordance with the consistent approach of this court, also if security needs require the using means that might harm the local population, every effort must be made to ensure that this harm is proportionate.
Sadly, the Court did not address the legality of the "Jews-only roads" as a technique of ethnic cleansing (pressuring the Arabs to leave their homes). If you can't go to work, or shop for food, or transport water, you die. These are fundamental rights. As Israeli human rights workers B'Tselem noted:
...the decision does not nullify the policy that prohibits Palestinians from traveling along some roads in the West Bank, setting them aside for Israelis only. This policy is racist and the High Court should have explicitly nullified it, for the reason that it relates to all Palestinians as a security threat, even if they are not suspected of anything, only because of their nationality. The rules of this policy have never been published, and closing of the roads is based on the absolute discretion of the defense establishment, which does not have to explain its decisions. This policy breaches international law.
The current regime in control of Israel continues to follow the well-known Jabotinsky technique of hard-hearted constant pressure on the Arab population, to make life so unbearable that they leave "voluntarily". I frankly don't understand how the Arabs have put up with the daily humiliations for 60 years. Perhaps those that remained after the Nakba of 1948 love their homeland so much that they endure anything the Zionists throw at them. A remarkable testimony to the human spirit.