NIS 918 million allocated to West Bank roads in ‘de facto sovereignty’ move

The Knesset Finance Committee has approved nearly a billion shekels in additional funding for roads and transportation infrastructure in the West Bank in what Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich describes as a lesson in “how to do de facto sovereignty” over the contested territory.

In total, some NIS 918 million ($275 million) will be spent on upgrading existing roads, paving new roads, building bypass roads for motorists in the West Bank to avoid Palestinian towns, and for other road infrastructure upgrades.

“This is how you do facto sovereignty. This is how you bring in a million residents [to the West Bank]. This is how you take the idea of a Palestinian terrorist state off the table,” says Smotrich enthusiastically in announcing the new funding.

The ultranationalist minister said that the “massive investment” was part of a strategic plan for “strengthening settlement, physically and politically connecting the region to the State of Israel, and making sovereignty a fait accompli on the ground.”

Transportation Minister Miri Regev concurs with Smotrich, saying the new funds are the “direct continuation of clear policies: sovereignty in practice, through action,” and says that during her tenure as minister, “billions” have been invested in transportation infrastructure in the West Bank.

The term “applying sovereignty” is used by the Israeli right for the annexation of the West Bank. Smotrich has been openly advocating for and advancing policies for the de facto annexation of the West Bank over the last two and a half years, with a series of administrative measures bringing the territory under civilian, not military, governance, as has been the case since 1967, and massively expanding the settlement enterprise.