road.234 This acts as a disguised, legitimized boundary of Israeli security control, which together with the military gates on all entrances to Bethlehem, enables Israel to shut down and place Bethlehem under siege at will. Additionally, these roads act as a connectivity obstacle due to the psychological and physical barrier created by the Israeli police and military control of these roads, the speed of travel implemented, and the security regime protecting their perimeters. This limits Palestinian movement across and between areas separated by these roads. Beit Safafa is one example of the way in which connectivity is severed, and indicative of the risks confronting other villages on the wrong side of these disguised boundaries. Beit Safafa, located 4 km south-west of Jerusalem, was a key village connecting Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Historically, it was linked to the villages of Al Malha, Al Jura and Al Walajeh in Bethlehem by a system of local roads, as well as the Jerusalem-Jaffa railway, allowing products to be traded between villages. 235 Initially, the village was divided in half by the Green Line, losing its direct connection to Bethlehem’s villages. 236 Following the fragmentation and isolation of Jerusalem, Palestinians from Bethlehem were prevented from accessing it without permits, and today the town is swamped by the large Israeli-Jewish colonies of Gilo, Giv’at HaTamos, and other Israeli colonies in west Jerusalem. Due to Beit Safafa’s vulnerability as a result of its isolation from other Palestinian areas, Beit Safafa and its satellite village of Sharafat have been powerless to prevent their division into four isolated parts by the six-lane Begin highway (also known as Route 4 or Highway 50), and the older Dov Yosef road which connects Gilo colony to Jerusalem.237 This colonizer-specific infrastructure is indicative of 234 This creates a 300-meter buffer zone surrounding the highway which renders any house built in this periphery as illegal (regardless of the fact that it existed prior to the construction of the road) and also blocks residents from doing any further work or expanding their homes. Civil Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, “Stop Israeli Illegal Settlement Highway in Jerusalem,” webpage, 6 April 2013, available at: https://stopthewall.org/2013/04/10/stop-israeli-illegal-settlement-highway-jerusalem [accessed 28 February 2020]. 235 PLO Negotiations Affairs Department, “The Ghettoization of Beit Safafa,” media briefs, 14 March 2013, available at: https://www.nad.ps/en/media-room/media-brief/ghettoization-beit-safafa [accessed 28 February 2020]. 236 “3.5. Beit Safafa,” in Bimkom, Survey of Palestinian Neighborhoods in East Jerusalem: Planning Problems and Opportunities (Jerusalem: Bimkom, 2014), available at: http://bimkom.org/eng/wpcontent/uploads/3.5_beit-safaffa-w.pdf 237 Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, supra 235. 65