Filled with great grief and pain residents of al-Khader town in Bethlehem province bid a final farewell to the 37-year-old coffee vendor Omar Issa one of the victims of the settler bypass roads in the occupied West Bank.
According to eyewitnesses Issa was fatally hit by a speeding vehicle driven by an Israeli settler while selling coffee on al-Khader’s bypass road.
Large prison
The Palestinian factions distributed a statement in al-Khader town mourning Issa who was killed while searching for a livelihood and condemning the deliberate vehicular attack.
They demanded all human rights organizations and the international community to intervene to stop the killings committed on this road and other bypass roads permeating the occupied West Bank.
Activist Sulaiman Abu Rajab said that Issa’s death points to the danger the settler bypass roads pose on the lives of Palestinians complaining that the settlers’ deliberate attacks are always treated as traffic accidents.
Had the victim been an Israeli settler they would have considered it a security incident Sulaiman added.
Secretary General of the Israeli Peace Now Movement Yariv Oppenhimer said that the cost of developing a network of luxurious roads for settlers who make up less than 5% of the total population of the Hebrew state amounts to millions of dollars adding that the West Bank has become a large prison for Palestinians.
Death roads
The Palestinian researcher Khaled Ma’ali said that dozens of Palestinians are killed each year on the settler bypass roads.
Taking advantage of the Israeli police protection and knowing that they will not be legally prosecuted except in rare cases settlers intentionally attack Palestinians Ma’ali pointed out.
Ma’ali added that the settler bypass roads do not only reap the lives of Palestinians but also swallow their lands gradually for expansion purposes turning the West Bank into cantons.
He noted that the term “bypass roads” emerged with the signing of Oslo Agreement in 1993 saying that there are three types of bypass roads: roads that are exclusively used by Israelis roads that the Palestinians are allowed to use with restrictions and roads that the Palestinians can use but have to pass through multiple checkpoints erected on them.
