Israel’s security cabinet recently approved the next phase of construction on a separate road system for Palestinians and Israelis in the occupied West Bank, last advanced in 2019. At a cost of NIS 335 million (about $91 million), the segregated highway that the Israeli military calls the “Fabric of Life” road will run between the Palestinian towns of al-‘Izariyya and al-Za‘ayim south of East 1 (or E1), a settlement plan on the eastern edge of East Jerusalem (see Delayed but Not Dead, the E1 Settlement Plan Threatens Lingering Two-State Dreams)

Officially titled Route 4370, the road is divided by a concrete wall on its median, the western side serving Palestinians driving cars with green (Palestinian Authority/PA) license plates and the eastern side solely for Israelis driving Israeli yellow-plated cars.

Known by activists as the Apartheid Road for the stark inequality it represents, the planned road extension will block Palestinians holding PA IDs from accessing Jerusalem and the E1 area, effectively de facto annexing that land to Israel.1 For Israeli settlers, the road eases the commute to Jerusalem from the Israeli settlement bloc of Ma‘ale Adumim, while facilitating construction of the E1 settlement plan. The international community, led by the United States, has pressured Israel not to develop E1 for decades, saying that it severs the West Bank and disrupts the territorial continuity needed to establish a Palestinian state. Israel counters this argument, stating that the development of Route 4370 maintains continuity for Palestinians [holding Palestinian Authority (PA) IDs], giving them an alternative road crossing the West Bank. (Currently Palestinians with PA IDs use Route 1, which enters deep into the E1 area; that would come to an end, and Palestinians with these IDs would no longer be able to enter the E1 area with a car; see Israel’s Security Cabinet Approves Extension of Apartheid Road East of Jerusalem.)

To learn more about the expansion of this highway and its potential ramifications, Jerusalem Story spoke to Daniel Seidemann, founder and director of Terrestrial Jerusalem, an Israeli nonprofit that monitors geopolitical developments on the ground in Jerusalem.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Jerusalem Story (JS): What is the history of the Apartheid Road?

Daniel Seidemann (DS): This goes back to 2004 when [Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon started building the E1 [settlement bloc] without permits or a building plan. The [US George W.] Bush administration picked up on this and weighed in, saying “Stop, you can’t build it because it will destroy the continuity of a future Palestinian state.”

As a result of that, Sharon said, “I will create continuity by means of a sealed road.” [If] you want to go from the northern West Bank to the southern West Bank, you can do that, but you can’t do it by going through [Israeli military-controlled] Area C to the east of Jerusalem. A sealed road like the autobahn to Berlin. That way you can go from Ramallah to Bethlehem, but you can’t get off anywhere between [the Palestinian villages of] Hizma and al-‘Izariyya. This would limit the traffic on the existing roads, the national Route 1, which goes from Tel Aviv through Jerusalem to Jericho, and the other roads, as they’ll be Israeli-only.

The first segment [of Route 4370] was completed in 2007, but it was never opened, because the whole purpose of it wasn’t completed. There was a link missing between al-‘Izariyya and al-Za‘ayim. It was ultimately opened in 2019. The settlers pushed for it, because they wanted to have a road that would allow them to go from the northern part of the West Bank to the southern part of the West Bank, without having to go through central Jerusalem. They opened it for Israelis as well as for Palestinians [with PA IDs], but it didn’t do much good for the Palestinians, because it was very limited. You could go from Hizma to al-Za‘ayim only, no further.

Just before the outbreak of the war [on October 7, 2023], residents received a notice that there would be test borings for the road [to finish it]. The US intervened to [prevent this] because completing the remaining 4.9 kilometers [approximately 3 miles] of the road would complete the whole project, which means an Israeli road system and a Palestinian road system. Area C [of the West Bank] around E1 would be inaccessible to the occupied and accessible to the occupier. That’s the whole point of this. Once that segment is completed, this will happen.

JS: Why has Israel decided to complete construction on the road now, if there’s always been US pressure to stop it?

DS: Because there’s a push to annex the West Bank, and until such time as the West Bank is annexed de jure, formally, it will be annexed de facto—this is highly significant in terms of the de facto annexation.

This road seamlessly integrates the area around Ma‘ale Adumim and E1 into Israel and functionally detaches it from the West Bank.

JS: What are the consequences of this road for Palestinians?

DS: It’s another example of how Israel is taking control over most of the West Bank. They will say, “it will improve Palestinian mobility.” Yeah it may, but it’s being done at the expense of accepting the apartheid reality. Seeing the Palestinian West Bank be devoured by Israel—this is occupation par excellence. And this notion that this is somehow offset by “helping” Palestinians—it’s nonsense when you look at the larger picture.

JS: And it is called the “Fabric of Life Road”—

DS: The army calls it the Fabric of Life road. Activists call it the Apartheid Road. And [Israeli Minister of Education Naftali] Bennett says the quiet part out loud: He calls it the Sovereignty Road. The army speaks in euphemisms. There is a whole lexicon of laundered terminology that allows the army to put a veneer of respectability on things that are not respectable. This is one of them.

JS: How is this road connected to both the Eastern Ring Road and the E1 settlement? The technical parts of this road?

DS: The Eastern Ring Road, part of which is complete in the southern part of [Jerusalem], is geared to allow traffic to move from the northern part of Jerusalem to the southern part of Jerusalem without accessing the city center. It’s a great idea, but it’s not reasonable when it’s detached from Palestinians. This will allow people to go from the area of [the Israeli settlement of] Pisgat Ze’ev and even to the north through the area of E1 through a tunnel under the Mount of Olives, all in a four-lane highway with exits. And it ends up in [the Israeli settlement of] Har Homa in the southern part of the city. This segment of [Route] 4730 allows Israel to create that ring road without any West Bank Palestinians [i.e., Palestinians holding PA IDs] on the road. So that is how it dovetails.

Construction on the Eastern Ring Road has been completed in the southern parts of the city, and the intersection with Route No. 1 is underway and complete. So this is not merely theoretical; this is being carried out. This would be the northern segment of the ring road, which would serve Israelis and not West Bank Palestinians.

The de facto annexation of the area to the east of Jerusalem has been at play for many years and I would say there are four components to it:

1. to delineate it more or less by the route of the barrier (i.e., the Separation Wall); that barrier has not been set up, but it defines what the borders are
2. to consolidate that area by large-scale settlement expansion, which is the E1 [settlement plan]
3. to integrate this area seamlessly into pre-1967 Israel, while detaching it from the West Bank
4. to neutralize the Palestinian presence by making [the area east of Jerusalem] inaccessible to West Bank Palestinians; by circling those Palestinians who are in this area with walls—the only way out of al-Za’ayim will be through this segregated road. And finally you have [the Bedouin village of] Khan al-Ahmar. You can’t isolate Bedouin encampments, so you displace them.

All of this is part of the same puzzle.