Certifying The Train Scheme in the West Bank
Violation: The Israeli occupation certifies the train project that aims at connecting most colonial gatherings in the West Bank with the Israeli cities within the 1948 borders.
Date: 24/07/2013
Perpetrators: The Israeli occupation government
Details:
On 24/07/2013, what is so called the Israeli Civil Administration of the Israeli occupation certified the Communication Minister’s, Yisrael Cats’, plan of building a network of railways in the West Bank. The mentioned ministry decided to uncover the project in public for any objection. A step that is made before issuing a permit and giving final certification. According to Haaretz, all the project blueprints are all ready. The project is expected to cost hundreds of billionsof shekles. The blueprints alone cost more than 1 million NIS. The mentioned plan includes extending 456km of lines, establishing 30 stations and 11 railways, most of which are within the West Bank.
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According to the plan that neglects the borders of the neighboring countries and the existence of Palestine and the agreements signed between the Palestinian authority and the Israeli occupation, it is supposed to connect most colonial outposts which exist illegally in the West Bank with the Israeli cities founded on the 1948 Palestinian lands. The project is expected to seize 30,000 dunums, what with the railway tracks, stations and checkpoints. And around 70,000 dunums will be rendered useless for Palestinians for they are located on the sideways of the railways. They will be closed for security reasons.
It is noteworthy that due to the hilly nature of the region, the engineers of the project will have to build tenths of bridges and tunnels which will raise the costs to be hundreds of billions in addition to the loss of vast spaces of Palestinian land.
Destroying nature and creating facts on the ground:
The project would destroy the Palestinian nature and confiscates thousands of agricultural lands as a result of its foundation which comes in synchronization with another Israeli plan of expanding the Israeli colonies. The road network, if the project gets implemented, will destroy a huge bulk of agricultural land and uproot trees for the benefit of the Israeli colonies. The project mainly aims at taking over most land that connects cities and that that connects cities with villages, transferring most West Bank lands into the Israeli side, and destroying the Palestinians’ potentials for building in their own lands.
A complete plan is to follow the previous train plans:
This project comes in completion to previous projects that were implemented, one of which is the railway network between Jerusalem, Jaffa and Tel Aviv in the occupied lands of 1948. The road network project was first proposed in March, 2012. For more details, check the reports written by LRC on this issue before.
