On strategic Route 443, a fine line between security, everyday life

By Yaakov Lappin / JNS

Send this clipping to somebody

Transcribed from the clipping

For Israeli security personnel who guard the strategically significant Route 443, one of only two highways connecting Jerusalem to Israel’s coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea, the difference between stopping contraband food or an armed terrorist isn’t very large.

“I tell the soldiers here, if you caught food smugglers, you also prevented a future terrorist attack. Someone who smuggles eggs into Israel will then try to smuggle people. If he sees this succeeds, he’ll smuggle in terrorists after that,” said Lt.-Col. Arik Yaakobi, commander of the IDF’s Military Police Taoz Battalion.

Route 443, a busy traffic artery, is anything but an ordinary highway. If anything would happen to Israel’s Route 1, Route 443 would be the only main connection between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. But unlike Route 1, it runs right through Palestinian areas, in between hostile villages that overlook the traffic from nearby hills.

“There is this big tension upon which sits the fabric of life here,” Yaakobi told JNS during a jeep tour of the area. “The big majority of the Palestinian population just wants to make a living honorably. We have to be able to distinguish between them, and the one who comes to attack.

This requires a huge intelligence effort, and our ability to identify intentions.” These days, Route 443 experiences at least one attack a week, in the form of a firebombing or rock-throwing.

Cite this clipping

"On strategic Route 443, a fine line between security, everyday life," Florida Jewish Journal, 7 February 2018. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2018-027. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2018-027