Four industrial areas a university and 25 settlements in Salfit were not enough to satisfy Israel’s thirst for more settlement projects in the West Bank province.
Israel’s Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz on Thursday approved a plan for the establishment of the first light rail in the northern West Bank that runs through the 18 villages and towns of Salfit.
Settlement servant
Katz who has dedicated his life for Israel’s settlement activity said that he had ordered the preparation for the new light rail project not taking into account the Oslo Accords international agreements and the fact that the lands on which the project will be implemented are privately-owned Palestinian lands.
The British newspaper Daily Telegraph has spoken extensively about the project and how it runs deeply into the heart of the West Bank starting in Ras al-Ain town in the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories and reaching Ariel settlement in the West Bank.
Violation of international law
Palestinian anti-settlement researcher Khalid Ma’ali said that the new settlement move violates the international humanitarian law and all international conventions.
Ma’ali said that the new light rail according to Walla website in the first phase will link between Rosh Ha’ayin and Petah Tikvah towns in the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories and Ariel settlement in Salfit.
He affirmed that the project once implemented will divide the West Bank into separate cantons thus killing the dream of establishing a viable and independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.
The 35.5-km-long railway which is expected to cost about 4 billion shekels is projected to be completed in 2025.
Ma’ali noted that Katz has revealed that there are plans for another 475-km-long railway to serve Israeli settlers in the West Bank which means seizing more Palestinian lands.
The Palestinian researcher stressed that Israel through the new project violates the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits the occupying power from carrying out any construction activity in the territories it occupies that would adversely affect the life of civilians.
