The Road to Destruction: The Hulhoul by-pass road

- David Ramati

Hebron Communications, ISRAEL (Tel / Fax Int+ 972-2-996-1306)

Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 5 (1995), 156.

Hulhoul, Judea, West Bank-In spite of the rain and the reported threats of the IDF Military Govenor they came to protest a human and ecological disaster. What made this group of about 100 people different from any group anywhere was the startling fact that that it is made up of both Jewish settlers and local Arabs working together for the same cause...to stop construction on the road.

The proposed by-pass road is a part of the controversial OSLO II agreement. The road will link Jewish Hebron to Jerusalem at a cost of US$100 million. This road, for Jews only, will destroy 170,00 dunams of prime vineyards and farm lands and disrupt the lives of 150 Arab families who depend on the rich soil of this valley for their livelihood.

Snaking through the valley floor this road will cut the water-shed in half causing many thousands of additional dunams to become non-productive. The area is already classified as a semi-desert region and the proper use of the annual rainfall is of paramount importance.

At the demonstration a copy of Jewish Law was read condemning the appropriation of Arab lands without their permission. "It is forbidden to take property from non-Jews from his house or from his field for use or for food."

The joint Arab/Jewish Committee against the road has called for continued protests against it's construction in the Ghandi tradition of non violence.

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