final status negotiations in the Oslo Accords of 1993, Israel was granted ample time and impetus to work towards consolidating its desire to annex and dominate Jerusalem.165 Given the economic ties between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, undermining these cities’ transportation links has been at the core of the Israeli strategy to disconnect them. Without ease of movement, Palestinian consumers and suppliers in Bethlehem are confronted with substantial impediments, rising costs and time constraints, which in effect deter and inhibit them from accessing certain markets and seizing economic opportunities in Jerusalem and beyond. Since the First Intifada and the signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel has targeted Palestinian transportation networks in Bethlehem in several ways. • Diversion of major thoroughfares: In 1995, the Jerusalem-Hebron Road (now known as Route 60) was appropriated by Israel and diverted away from Bethlehem. Prior to this, this road had been a key Palestinian thoroughfare running from Nazareth in the north, to Beersheba in the south, and right through the West Bank, connecting Bethlehem directly to Jerusalem and Ramallah. After the restructure, including the construction of two major tunnels on the lands of Beit Jala (Gilo Tunnel, 270 m and Refaim Tunnel, 900 m), the section of the Jerusalem-Hebron Road that had run through Bethlehem became a road exclusively for Israeli-Jewish colonizer use, bypassing Bethlehem entirely. Consequently, Palestinians are no longer able to directly access Jerusalem. Simultaneously, this has dramatically increased the Israeli-Jewish colonizer population in the Etzion Colonial Bloc, which tripled in the first 10 years, due to having exclusive and faster access to Jerusalem.166 In 2019, the Netanyahu administration began construction on an additional tunnel and bridge to expand the road,167 confiscating more Palestinian land to further ease travel for Israeli-Jewish colonizers, increase their population, and further isolating Bethlehem from Jerusalem. • Permits and checkpoints: In the 1990s, following the First Intifada, Israel imposed a permit regime requiring all Palestinians without Jerusalem residency and Israeli citizenship to obtain permits to enter Jerusalem, resulting in a substantial reduction in those able to travel into Jerusalem 165 Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006), 200-201. 166 The population doubled in the first 6 years to 30,853 colonizers, and tripled to 45,870 within 10 years of the re-routing. The estimated population in 2018 of the Etzion Colonial Bloc colonies directly south of Jerusalem was 76,976. Peace Now, supra 111. 167 Decision on the Acquisition and Taking of the Right of Disposal, (Road No. 60, Beit Jala Checkpoint), H/10/19, [Arabic and Hebrew], 1 September 2019, available at: http://peacenow.org.il/wp-content/ uploads/2019/09/Confiscation_Orders_Tunnels_Raod_010919.pdf 51