Since mid-2011, residents of the Palestinian village of Qadum, which lies on the road between Nablus and Qalqiliyah, have been protesting the closure of the main road connecting their village to Nablus. The road was blocked when the settlement of Kedumim, located nearby, was expanded at the turn of the millennium. This expansion brought the road, once used by Palestinian residents, into the settlement, and ever since, residents of Qadum have had to take a detour that makes travel to Nablus longer. Word of this protest reached the ears of Minister of Defense in December 2019, but it was the Kedumim settlers who contacted him, demanding he take action to stop it. In their letter, Kedumim settlers described the nearly decade-long protests as “riots” and said they “disrupt normal life in many Kedumim neighborhoods.” As the history of this particular locale shows, some lives are disrupted more readily than others.

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