Route 443 (Israel–Palestine)

Route 443 links Jerusalem to Modi'in, a planned community situated roughly halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and continues through central Israel toward the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.[2] It is a four-lane highway built as a parallel route because Route 1, the main Tel Aviv–Jerusalem artery, is frequently congested.[2] The Washington Institute for Near East Policy called it "a second artery between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem," reflecting its role as one of the two principal approaches to the capital from central Israel.[1]

The highway traverses the West Bank southwest of Ramallah, near Jerusalem.[3] Its West Bank stretch runs east of the security barrier; one report describes that section as approximately 16 kilometers, while a report on the 2010 reopening described a 20-kilometer stretch from the Maccabim checkpoint to the Begin Highway.[5][7] The road connects the Modi'in area via Ma'aleh Beit Horon to northern Jerusalem and forms part of a wider strategic corridor linked to Givat Ze'ev, surrounding settlements, and Ben Gurion International Airport.[8]

Construction of the modern highway involved the expropriation of land in the West Bank. Human-rights organizations cited in U.S. State Department reporting maintained that some of the land was originally taken by the Israeli military to improve transportation links between Ramallah and outlying Palestinian villages.[3][9] Reporting on the subsequent Supreme Court case similarly noted that the road had been planned to serve local residents and was built on land, some of which had been expropriated from them.[10] The account of the expropriation's original purpose is attributed to petitioners and advocacy groups rather than established independently by those reports.

Planning for the security barrier in the early 2000s brought Route 443 into a broader strategic calculus. Plans north of the highway were intended to place Givat Ze'ev and surrounding Jewish settlements on the Israeli side of the fence and to give Israel control of the northern access route to Jerusalem, including Route 443 and the planned Highway 45.[8] An early proposal would have created two Palestinian enclaves north of Jerusalem, with populations of approximately 11,500 and 45,000, connected to Palestinian communities south or west of Ramallah by internal fencing and tunnels or corridors beneath the highway. Residents would have remained under Israeli security control while being citizens of the Palestinian Authority or a future Palestinian state.[8]

Those enclave plans were ultimately shelved. At the end of February 2004, Brigadier General Eran Ophir stated that deep barrier plans to protect Ben Gurion Airport and Highway 443 were being abandoned because of concern about "trapping tens of thousands of Palestinians."[8] The revised fence plan called for a local barrier along the road, increased patrols, and underpasses through which Palestinians could pass, rather than an enclave arrangement that would have fenced in an estimated 51,000 Palestinians.[1]

A High Court of Justice ruling at the end of June 2004 in the Beit Sourik case — HCJ 2056/04, brought by residents of Beit Sourik, Bidu, and neighboring villages — disqualified 30 of the 40 kilometers of fence route between Maccabim and Givat Ze'ev and required the state to propose an alternative.[8] The ruling addressed the fence's route and the proportional balance between security and residents' rights; it was distinct from later litigation over ordinary Palestinian traffic access to the highway.[8]

Route 443 runs between Israeli population centers while passing near Palestinian villages on both sides of its West Bank section. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs characterize it as serving mostly Jewish traffic while being crossed by passageways serving Palestinians.[11][12] These descriptions reflect the institutions' perspectives, and neither source independently quantifies traffic on the passageways.

The U.S. State Department reported that approximately 40,000 Israeli vehicles used the highway to commute between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.[3] A later intelligence estimate reported by The Times of Israel suggested that perhaps 10 of approximately 40,000 vehicles using the road each day were Palestinian, illustrating the limited practical use of the reopened section under the access arrangements then in force.[5]

A later account described Israeli drivers as barred from access roads leading to Palestinian villages along the route, while Palestinians could use the highway's West Bank section subject to checkpoint screening.[13] The arrangements therefore differentiated access to the highway, village roads, and crossings rather than imposing a single rule across the entire road network.

Route 443 is an important commuting corridor between Jerusalem and central Israel. Morning traffic data recorded approximately 6,600 cars entering Jerusalem on Route 443 between Modi'in and Givat Ze'ev from 6:00 to 10:00 in 2015. Route 1 carried approximately 9,300 inbound cars during a comparable period, using average data from 2012–2013.[14] The combined route figures were approximately 15,900 cars traveling toward Jerusalem and 13,300 in the opposite direction during those morning hours.[14]

The road also forms part of a wider transportation network north of Jerusalem. Highway 45 was truncated by the security barrier, while Highway 22, extending from Jerusalem's Begin North freeway toward Hizma and Jericho, was designated to receive priority and temporarily replace it.[8] A proposed eastern ring road was intended to connect the northern and southern West Bank without passing through Jerusalem, but the report describing it said the road had not been fully approved or built and that its central section remained in planning.[8]

Route 443 follows the Beit Horon ascent, a historic passage from the Shephelah toward Jerusalem used by civilians and armies over many generations.[4] The area around Routes 443 and 444 also saw battles during the War of Independence, when Israeli forces faced local militias and the regular armies of Iraq and Jordan near several sites along the corridor.[15]

Modern landmarks along the road include the Maccabim Crossing, the Ofer Junction checkpoint, and the Bell checkpoint. Maccabim is used by Palestinians holding permits to enter Israel for work or humanitarian purposes, while the Bell checkpoint screens traffic arriving from roads connected to Ramallah and nearby villages.[6] The checkpoint near Ofer Junction was established as part of the 2010 reopening arrangements to prevent unauthorized entry into Israel, Jerusalem, and Givat Ze'ev.[16]

The closure of Route 443 to Palestinian traffic has a disputed starting point. Ynet reported that the section at issue was closed to Palestinian vehicles in October 2000, at the outbreak of the Second Intifada, on the order of then-Binyamin Brigade commander Gal Hirsch.[10] The State Department reported that the highway was closed to non-Israeli vehicles in 2002 after attacks in 2001 that killed five Israelis, while The Jerusalem Post reported six people killed in the attacks preceding the closure.[3][17] An initial order in 2000 may therefore have been followed by a broader closure in 2002 and a separate military order in 2006 that prohibited nearly all Palestinians from using the highway.[3][18]

During the Second Intifada, the highway experienced firebombing and rock-throwing attacks on Israeli cars, as well as live-fire incidents.[13][7] In one attack in 2001, live fire struck Shmuel Landau's car as he was traveling with his son Ronen; Ronen Landau was killed.[7] Before the closure, the road had served approximately 55,000 Palestinians from villages including Beit Sira, Beit Ur al-Fauqa, Beit Ur al-Tahta, and Khirbet al-Misbah.[17]

By 2006, a military order restricted nearly all Palestinians from using the highway.[18] The State Department's 2008 human-rights report noted that in March 2008 the Israeli High Court deferred a decision on the restrictions' legality pending an update on progress toward an alternative road for Palestinians, effectively leaving the restrictions in place at that time.[18]

In 2007, the head of Beit Sira's village council and 24 other petitioners — representing residents of Beit Sira, Safa, Beit Liqya, Khirbet al-Misbah, Beit Ur al-Tahta, and Beit Ur al-Fauqa — filed a High Court petition challenging the blanket ban with assistance from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.[10] The petitioners argued that Palestinian land had originally been appropriated by the IDF to modernize an old British road linking rural communities to Ramallah and that Palestinians were later barred from using the highway by car, on foot, or by animal.[5] As violence declined, Israel built "fabric of life" roads linking villages along Route 443 to Ramallah and removed roadblocks on those internal routes, but Palestinians remained barred from the highway itself.[5] The petitioners characterized the restriction as discriminatory and as collective punishment.[5]

On December 29, 2009, Israel's Supreme Court ruled by a 2–1 majority that the military commander must find an alternative way to address security concerns without completely barring residents of the affected villages from using the road.[19] Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch and Justice Uzi Fogelman formed the majority; Justice Edmond Levy dissented.[19]

Fogelman's opinion held that the military commander had exceeded his authority by imposing the restrictions and that less harmful alternatives to a complete ban had not been adequately considered.[10] He wrote that a total denial of the protected residents' right to use the road was not justified by the security benefit, particularly given that the highway mainly served travel within Israel and had been planned for local residents on land partly expropriated from them.[10] Beinisch joined his opinion and stated that excluding an entire population from a public resource was a severe outcome that the commander should seek to avoid.[10] Her majority opinion acknowledged the security concerns but emphasized that "the decisive factor is the grave end result and not the integrity of the [commander's] considerations," while Fogelman characterized the ban as "disproportionate."[5]

Levy's dissent argued that the commander and defense minister should have been allowed to devise a solution without court intervention.[10] He considered the closure within the commander's authority given attacks in which Israelis had been killed on or near the road, while also stating that security measures should be reviewed as circumstances changed and that a permanent total closure was inappropriate during a period of calm.[10] He warned that five months might be too little time to implement the ruling and could produce a result carrying serious security risk.[10]

Beinisch also rejected the petitioners' comparison of the road's access regime with apartheid in South Africa, calling the comparison inappropriate and extreme.[10] The IDF was ordered to pay the plaintiffs' court expenses and was given approximately five months to devise an alternative security arrangement.[5] At the close of 2009, no decision had been publicized on precisely how or when Palestinian access would resume.[3]

Palestinian vehicles were allowed back onto a section of Route 443 on May 28, 2010, following the Supreme Court ruling.[7] Globes described the reopened stretch as 20 kilometers, running from the Maccabim checkpoint to the Begin Highway, and reported that security forces established several inspection points and deployed approximately 15 kilometers of barbed-wire fencing along the route.[7] Police reported no unusual incidents on the first day of reopening.[7]

Ynet described an arrangement under which Palestinian vehicles could enter and exit the highway near Beit Sira and Beit Ur al-Fauqa and exit near Khirbet al-Misbah and at-Tira.[16] A checkpoint near Ofer Junction was established to prevent unauthorized entry into Israel, Jerusalem, and Givat Ze'ev.[16] The security establishment spent approximately 30 million shekels on arrangements for implementing the ruling, including security checks for Palestinian travelers.[16]

The reopening drew criticism from multiple directions. Palestinian residents said they expected to continue using an alternative road because checkpoint procedures could make journeys longer. Safa council head Mohammed Karaja said a trip to Ramallah that had previously taken 20 minutes was already taking 45 to 60 minutes and worried the new arrangement might add further time.[16] Association for Civil Rights legal adviser Dani Yakir called the change largely symbolic given the restrictions still in place, while Givat Ze'ev council head Yossi Avrahami expressed security concerns and cited a recent shooting at an army position and stone-throwing on the road.[16]

Israeli families bereaved by earlier attacks also opposed the reopening. Shmuel Landau, whose son Ronen was killed in the 2001 shooting, organized a petition against allowing Palestinian traffic to resume.[7] Palestinian residents were also dissatisfied because only part of the road had reopened and access to Ramallah and nearby villages remained difficult under the new route structure.[7]

The State Department's 2010 human-rights report confirmed that Israeli authorities reopened Route 443 during the year, though with some restrictions on Palestinian traffic, without specifying which travelers were affected or the precise nature of the remaining limitations.[20] A later account described an arrangement under which Palestinians could enter the road's West Bank section but could not continue east from the Ofer checkpoint toward Beitunya and Ramallah or west from the Maccabim checkpoint toward Modi'in and Tel Aviv.[5] Palestinian travelers wishing to use the road underwent thorough security checks.[5] A B'Tselem spokeswoman said the checks and the inability to reach Ramallah left "no reason whatsoever for a Palestinian to use that road today."[5]

Route 443 runs through hilly terrain near Ramallah and Palestinian villages, with nearby hillsides overlooking traffic on the highway.[6][21] The Taoz Battalion maintains checkpoints and screens vehicles joining the highway; the Maccabim Crossing is used by Palestinians holding permits to enter Israel for work or humanitarian purposes.[6] Screening intensity varies with intelligence alerts. At its highest level, the Bell checkpoint requires a stop and search of every arriving vehicle and checks of all occupants.[6]

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center identifies Route 443 as a particular focus of what it characterizes as Palestinian "popular resistance," noting that Israeli vehicles — including emergency vehicles — were targeted on roads in the area.[22] JNS reported that at the time of its account the road experienced at least one attack per week, usually involving firebombs or stone-throwing, and that incidents had risen amid heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions.[6]

A 2016 report described dozens of attacks along the route during the period of terrorism it covered and said the army planned to install additional surveillance cameras and two observation balloons, with feeds monitored in a central operations room.[21] The officer responsible for the road's security said 50 to 70 combat soldiers patrolled the roughly 10-mile highway, while the absence of a security fence along most of the route left those soldiers stretched thin.[21]

On November 23, 2015, a Palestinian terrorist named Ahmed Jamal Ahmed Taha, 21, from Qatanna north of Jerusalem, stabbed two Israeli soldiers at a gas station on Route 443 after they had stopped following a traffic accident.[23] One soldier was killed and a female officer was lightly wounded. The attacker was shot and killed at the scene.[23] In March 2016, a Palestinian pedestrian shot two soldiers in the legs at the Bell checkpoint before escaping. Both soldiers recovered, and the attacker was arrested months later.[6]

The Times of Israel documented 20 Molotov-cocktail attacks during the first two months of the period it examined and reported that, beginning with a New Year's Eve incident in 2014, there had been 15 attacks involving 20 firebombs and dozens of stones.[5] In response, the IDF brought additional troops to the area and doubled the manpower deployed along the route.[5]

Route 443's history encompasses contested legal and political questions. Human-rights organizations cited in State Department and Jewish Virtual Library reporting argued that land for the highway was originally taken to improve Palestinian transportation between Ramallah and outlying villages and was later closed to those communities on security grounds.[3][9] This account is attributed to advocacy organizations rather than established as an independent finding.

The chronology of Palestinian access restrictions is inconsistent across sources. Ynet places an initial closure in October 2000; the State Department and The Jerusalem Post date a closure to 2002, although they report different death tolls for the attacks preceding it; and a separate military order barring nearly all Palestinians is dated to 2006.[3][18][17][10] The dates may refer to measures of different scope rather than a single closure event.

The dating of the decisive High Court ruling also varies. JNS says the court deemed the ban illegal in 2007, while State Department and detailed Ynet accounts date the majority ruling to December 29, 2009, after the petition was filed in 2007.[3][6][10][19] The detailed legal accounts and official report support December 29, 2009, as the ruling date.

Reported measurements concern different portions of the road and reopening plan. The Jerusalem Post described a planned 14-kilometer reopening, The Times of Israel described the West Bank section as 16 kilometers, and Globes described the stretch reopened in May 2010 as 20 kilometers from Maccabim to the Begin Highway.[5][17][7]

Petitioners characterized the blanket access ban as discriminatory and as collective punishment. Beinisch acknowledged the gravity of excluding an entire population from a public road while rejecting the comparison with South African apartheid as inappropriate and extreme.[10] Levy's dissent favored greater deference to the military commander's security judgment.[10] The reopening in May 2010 satisfied neither Israeli families bereaved by attacks on the road nor Palestinian residents who found that the checkpoint arrangements made travel toward Ramallah impractical.[16][7]