Terrorists shot several bursts of automatic gunfire at an IDF position near the community of Beit Horon Tuesday evening. The position is adjacent to Highway 443, and initial reports say that the terrorists had been driving on that road. No one was reported hurt.
They apparently escaped in their car. The IDF combed the area and found some of the bullets that were fired.
In December, a High Court panel ruled that Highway 443 - which connects the city of Modiin with the capital city of Jerusalem - would be opened to Arab traffic from the Palestinian Authority. It had accepted a motion filed by a group of Arabs who live near the highway and who were represented by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel – a non-governmental organization funded by the New Israel Fund, which receives money from the Ford Foundation.
The road had been closed off to Arab traffic after a series of shooting attacks against Israeli cars in the early 2000s.
Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, who headed the panel, noted in her decision that “despite the understanding for the security needs, the use of security means such as these, which create absolute separation between different populations in the use of roads and prevent an entire population from using the road, give rise to a feeling of inequality and even an association of unacceptable motives.” Beinisch's opinion was seconded by Judge Uzi Fogelman.
Judge Edmond Levi gave a dissenting opinion, and said that closing Route 443 to Arab traffic made sense in a period of terrorist threats. He noted the names of Israelis who were killed in terror attacks on the road, including three members of the Ben-Shalom Sweri family who were shot and killed near Beit Horon in August 2001.