AL-EIZARIYA, West Bank (AP) — Israeli bulldozers tore down dozens of Palestinian shops on the edge of a town southeast of Jerusalem this week, clearing land ahead of a settlement-linked road project in the occupied West Bank.
Israel says the demolitions are needed to make way for a road serving Palestinian communities. But Palestinian officials say the road is part of a broader plan to keep Palestinian vehicles off a new highway being built to serve nearby Israeli settlements.
That project is part of a strategic section of the West Bank known as E1, which Israel is developing with the intention of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“The shops that were demolished are where Israel is planning to build a new road that will divert all Palestinian traffic to that road so that they can close down the whole area of E1 for Palestinians,” said Hagit Ofran, director of the antisettlement group Peace Now.
Tuesday’s demolitions took place in the town of al-Eizariya, less than a week after some owners received notices to evacuate shops built without permits. Attorneys appealed, up to Israel’s Supreme Court, but the demolitions went ahead.
Israeli authorities said the buildings including car washes, scrap metal shops and vegetable stands were built illegally and owners had been warned for “several years” enforcement was forthcoming.
COGAT, the Israeli military body overseeing civil affairs in the West Bank, said the structures obstructed construction of the planned road to connect Palestinian towns.
The new road system is meant to solve congestion and improve th …