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US funds 'apartheid' road network in Israel
The construction of sections of a controversial segregated road network in the West Bank planned by Israel for Palestinians–leaving the main roads for exclusive use by settlers–is being financed by a US government aid agency, a map prepared by Palestinian researchers has revealed.
USAID, which funds development projects in Palestinian areas, is reported to have helped to build 114km of Israeli-proposed roads, despite a pledge from Washington six years ago that it would not assist in implementing what has been widely described by human rights groups and the Israeli media as Israel's "apartheid road" plan.
To date the agency has paid for the construction of nearly a quarter of the segregated road network put forward by Israel in 2004, said the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ).