January 6, 2010: This week, in a 38-page decision, the Israeli High Court of Justice handed down a decision that drastically endangers the lives of Israelis who travel along Highway 443, a major traffic artery connecting the Modi'in area to Jerusalem. Shurat HaDin, representing 120 local residents who utilize the road, was a respondent in the case and had argued to the Court that allowing Palestinian traffic, which had been prohibited on Highway 443 since 2002, to resume would give a green light to the terrorists to re-commence their targeting of Israeli vehicles. 

Numerous Israeli civilians had been murdered on the highway in terror attacks prior to the IDF's banning of the Palestinians. This week, the High Court rejected our arguments and found that the barring of Palestinian drivers was discriminatory and outweighs the importance of the safety of innocent Israelis who might be killed in shooting and firebomb attacks. The High Court ruling has once again made it clear that in the eyes of the justices the safety of Israeli civilians must take a back seat to the alleged civil rights of the Palestinians.

In just eight months from December 2000 to August 2001, six Israelis were murdered, and many more were injured in terrorist attacks along Highway 443. Palestinian gunmen found it extremely simple to open fire on Israeli passenger vehicles and make a quick escape onto the numerous access roads that led to Arab villages along the highway. Finally, after the six deaths, the IDF in 2002 decided to take action and to prohibit Palestinian traffic from the highway in order to obstruct the terrorists' abilities to target Israeli cars. Barricades were placed along the roads that led into the neighboring villages and drivers with the PA's green and white license plates were no longer allowed on the 443.

Shortly thereafter Palestinians and their associates from the leftwing "human rights" groups filed a petition in the High Court demanding that the IDF allow Palestinians back on the road.  The petition charged that blocking access to Palestinian traffic was not derived from security motives but, rather, racial discrimination and it infringed upon the basic rights of the Palestinian motorists. The European media called Highway 443 an "apartheid road".

Shurat HaDin representing residents of Israeli communities who commute along the highway were named as respondents in the petition. We argued to the High Court that allowing Palestinians back on the road would mean that no Israeli driver was safe from terror attacks. In addition, the villagers who would use the road today are those who knowingly harbored these terrorists and provided them with an easy escape route. In some instances local Arabs had been identified as perpetrating the attacks. We insisted that after 6 deaths in less than one year the security crisis on the road was the sole issue to be considered.

The High Court rejected our arguments as well as the IDF's and substituted its own concerns about discrimination over our pleas to safeguard Jewish lives. The High Court has given the IDF 5 months to make arrangements to allow the Palestinians back on the road.

We are reviewing the High Court's decision and are formulating the next legal steps to be taken. There is no need for additional Israelis to be murdered before the IDF is permitted by the High Court to prohibit Palestinians from Highway 443 again.

For my op-ed in the Jerusalem Post Click Here