Following
HaMoked’s petition to the High Court of Justice (HCJ) for the opening of the DCO Checkpoint linking the cities of Ramallah and Al Birah with the communities lying to the east, on December 14, 2014, the state announced that it would open the checkpoint in the direction of Ramallah and al-Birah for unrestricted Palestinian traffic, rather than just for a limited number of vehicles owned by VIP card holders, as was done thus far. However, the state declared that travel through the checkpoint in the opposite direction would be allowed only once the development roadworks in Intersection 90 were completed.
HaMoked insisted that the state should consider opening the checkpoint before the end of the roadworks, and stressed that preventing traffic from Ramallah and al-Birah on this route harmed hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents.
After repeated deferrals, the
state announced on November 29, 2016, that in view of the “security situation”, it did not intend to complete the roadworks at Intersection 90 any time soon, and that the present arrangement for Palestinian vehicle traffic would remain unchanged until further notice.
In the court hearing, the state clarified that completion of the roadworks in Intersection 90 was not a priority at present, neither economically nor from the security standpoint. HaMoked’s representative said in response: “the security situation is fluid, we are concerned that there would never be a year where they would say it is possible”.
In
the judgment of December 5, 2016, the HCJ accepted the state’s position, ruling that the state’s undertaking to regulate traffic in Intersection 90 stands. The petition was deleted without prejudice, allowing the petitioners to raise their arguments anew in a future date.
