Israel’s National Road Safety Authority held a meeting Tuesday with senior officials of the Authority, with the goal of formulating an emergency plan to be approved by the government, to solve the transportation failures in Judea and Samaria that endanger human life.
Despite the Palestinian Authority receiving billions of dollars from foreign governments and the United Nations for infrastructure, many of the roads around PA-run villages and cities are in major disrepair. Israel maintains many of the major routes in Judea & Samaria which are used by both Palestinian and Israeli citizens, and those roads require maintenance, specifically in the areas that bisect Palestinian-controlled areas.
A month ago, an observational tour of the management of the National Road Safety Authority was held on the roads of Judea and Samaria. As a follow-up to this, the meeting this morning took place and included a joint team of several parties responsible for road safety in the area. The former Minister of Transportation, Meirav Michaeli, famously said when asked why she choose not to deal with the issue "it is a shame to invest in a place that in the end will not be part of the sovereign State of Israel."
>> The store owner is endangering his customers' lives in order to attract them "without breaking the law".
— Regavim (@RegavimEng) August 17, 2022
Transport Minister @MeravMichaeli – anything to say about this??
The meeting took place was held the offices part of the Israeli settlement of Karnei Shomron and was led by the chairman of the regional council Eshkol, Yigal Lahav along with other prominent figures.
The participants heard an overview of the reality on both Palestinian and Israeli-used roads, the challenges of enforcement, and the immediate and budgetary needs required in order to properly decrease the many fatal accidents taking place. At the end of the meeting, it was decided that the data presented would be handed over within about a month as an orderly proposal for Minister of Transportation Miri Regev and Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich.
If you thought Israeli drivers were aggressive, try navigating the seldom patrolled roads of Judea and Samaria. A Knesset study identifies shortfalls in preventing deadly accidents. #Israel #Judea #Samaria #Palestine #CarCrash #Roadsafety @TheJudean https://t.co/ilItgGt0Vh
— The Judean (@TheJudean) June 28, 2022
At the end of the meeting, the director general of the National Road Safety Authority, Dr. Erez Kita, said: "We are at the peak of the process of formulating a dedicated plan for the road reforms that will be presented to the Minister of Transportation and will deliver an answer to challenges unique to the region and the road-user population.”
The passengers on the roads of Judea and Samaria suffer from severe transportation difficulties when even short-distance trips take a long time due to the abundance of cars on these routes.
Israel's returning PM Netanyahu said new settlements in the Judea & Samaria are a priority for his government.
— Ben Torahson 🛂 He/Him/Male/Hetero, without uterus (@Bengegenislam) December 29, 2022
Israel has built 250+ settlements on the Promised land, linked by Jewish roads.
Israel gave rights to Palestinians to also live in Judea & Samaria in 2022. 🇮🇱 https://t.co/olT5ZFAQts
Since 1967, the population in Judea and Samaria, both on the part of the Palestinian Authority and Israel, has grown significantly, and due to the improved economic situation, the number of vehicles has also increased. Despite that throughout this period of over 50 years, the roads in the area have been left almost unchanged and were not adapted to the population, the result being catastrophic. Since Israel’s new coalition largely sees Judea and Samaria as part of Israel, many of them heavily campaigned on fixing the problem in the region as part of restoring all problematic roads in Israel.
