This was yet another illustration of the difference in the negotiating style between the two sides. Since 1983, the Israeli government has been preparing regional and road plans that would determine the allocation of space between Arabs and Jews in the occupied territories. The Oslo negotiations gave it the opportunity to consolidate its plans into political reality. While the Palestinian negotiators fastened on the micro-picture--How many of the PLO fighters in exile would be repatriated? What concessions would Israel be prepared to grant the new Palestinian Authority?--the Israelis pursued a clear project for maintaining overall control of the territories. As a part of this project, they insisted on retaining under their jurisdiction a milelong segment of the Birzeit road that intersected with the new settlement road.

Now that the Palestinian Authority had the money to improve the road between Ramallah and Birzeit University, it had to obtain the permission of the Israeli authorities to carry out road works in that milelong stretch under Israeli jurisdiction. All the other parts of the rehabilitated road were completed before such permission was granted. Drivers on this road would now drive over the new road, except for that small bit in the dip of the valley that fell in what was called Area C, a territory under full Israeli control, where Palestinians were banned from carring out road works.

In 1998, the long-awaited permission was finally granted, and work on the Israeli-controlled portion of the road could now take place. Large bulldozers were put to work to cut a straight road through the hill, a road that would avoid that hazardous blind turn right after you left Ramallah. Now you could drive straight from the road along the old British radio transmission station down to the intersection with the settlement road. The trip that used to take a drowsy, rattling half-hour now took ten minutes.

As it turned out, this road was as doomed as the Palestinian Authority itself. With the start of the second intifada, the Israelis reclaimed the part that fell under their jurisdiction. They brought their own bulldozers and dug up that part of the new road. By the juncture with the settlement road they placed a few jeeps that prevented even four-wheel-drive cars from driving over the bumpy, upturned asphalt. Pedestrians were picked up at random and harassed. Some were detained for hours or for the whole day, and prevented from getting to class or getting on with whatever business had made it necessary for them to cross the new frontier.

I remember participating in a protest march to reclaim the road and reconnect the town with the university. A Palestinian bulldozer headed the procession, flattening the scruffy road, and students sat down on it in large numbers. The usual scuffle of stones ensued, followed by shooting by the Israeli army. Still, the spectacle that beamed around the world of students and faculty trying to assert their right to drive to their university was impressive. The negative publicity that Israel attracted must have convinced the authorities there to give way. The Israelis removed their jeeps and allowed the PA to repair the damage Israel had caused to this part of the road. Once again, Palestinian cars resumed their travels along this twice rehabilitated road.

As the second intifada wore on, the terms of engagement changed. The Israeli army now followed a policy of minimizing contact with the population. They used helicopters to carry out "targeted assassinations" of Palestinian leaders, and tanks and armored personnel carriers to invade the centers of Palestinian towns. Day-to-day civilian affairs had already been transferred to the PA under the Oslo Accords, but these conditions made it more difficult for Palestinians to employ the tactics of nonviolent resistance to the occupation forces.

One day the travelers between Birzeit and Ramallah found that they could no longer drive their cars along the road. Israeli bulldozers had come in at night and dug out the part of the road by the Mahraka on both sides of the intersection with the settlement road. At both ends of this milelong section of the road, they placed barriers to prevent vehicular traffic. The trip to the university that had taken ten minutes by car now turned into an hourlong journey that precluded the use of personal cars, required the traveler to change public transport twice and walk for a mile along the dug-out segment of the road.

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