Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he just earmarked NIS 200 million to complete a network of bypass roads around Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Speaking during a meeting of the Likud party at the Israeli parliament—Knesset—Netanyahu said an additional NIS 600 million will be added to the 2019 budget for additional routes and lighting.
He added that his government has a clear commitment to resolve the issue of security on West Bank roads.
Tension burst out after the prime minister claimed that he must lay the groundwork for international opinion before taking action.
Relatives of Israelis killed in anti-occupation attacks and settler leaders were holding a hunger strike outside Netanyahu’s house to demand immediate allocation of the funding.
Netanyahu was confronted at the Likud faction meeting by relatives of Israelis killed in anti-occupation attacks on West Bank roads who demanded more funding for bypass highways.
Also directly addressing the prime minister was the mother of an Israeli settler who died after their car was stoned on a West Bank road. The mother called for improved infrastructure and advanced security measures including lighting and cellular coverage on settlement bypass roads.
The Palestinians see the roads as another way for Israel to seize their lands and entrench a segregated “apartheid” system that favors Israeli settlers over the native Palestinian inhabitants of the land.
