US President Joe Biden’s visit later this week is expected to snarl traffic in central Israel, with the main highway connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to be closed for hours in both directions on Wednesday afternoon, police said Sunday.
Biden will land at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday afternoon and depart from there on his way to Saudi Arabia on Friday afternoon. Security measures for the visit, officially titled Blue Shield 3, are expected to include more than 16,000 police, border police officers and volunteers.
The Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, known as Route 1, will be closed between the Shapirim junction in the airport area and the entrance to Jerusalem, police said in a statement. Traffic in both directions will be diverted to routes 44, 444 and 443.
Police warned of traffic disruptions and blockades in the center of the country, Jerusalem and highways leading to it during Biden’s visit, adding that details would be posted on Israeli police social media.
This will include many temporary road closures in Jerusalem from Wednesday to Friday – in line with Biden’s schedule – centered around King David Street, where the US president and his delegation will be staying.
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Meanwhile, Israeli police and the Israeli air force are conducting drills ahead of Biden’s arrival throughout central Israel, primarily focusing on securing travel between Biden’s planned destinations. The military exercise was supposed to end on Sunday evening.
The police presence will be concentrated in the area of Ben Gurion Airport, Jerusalem and the main roads to the capital. Police control centers and hotlines will be active during the US president’s visit, the statement said.
Illustration: Israeli Yasur heavy transport helicopters fly over Israel in an undated photo released by the military on July 7, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)
The statement also emphasized that all private aircraft, including drones, are prohibited in the airspace of Ben Gurion Airport and Jerusalem during the visit.
Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia marks his first visit to the Middle East as US president, but his tenth visit to Israel overall. Although originally scheduled for late June, his trip was pushed back to this week due to scheduling issues that an Israeli official said were related to the Saudi portion of his trip. Biden accepted Israel’s invitation to visit in late April.
According to the latest version of Biden’s schedule released Thursday, the president will be met by Prime Minister Yair Lapid upon his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport and then tour various security systems with Defense Secretary Benny Gantz, also at the airport. The latter part was originally supposed to take part in the Palmachim airbase, but was moved to the airport on Sunday to save time on commuting and organizing traffic.
The show-and-tell will include an Iron Dome missile defense battery, a nod to U.S. efforts to grant Israel an additional $500 million for back-up batteries for the system after last year’s Gaza war. Biden’s tour will also include the Iron Beam laser missile defense system, which is designed to work in tandem with systems like Iron Dome and shoot down smaller projectiles.
He will then travel to Jerusalem, where he will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.
On Thursday, Biden is scheduled to hold various meetings with Israeli politicians, including Lapid and Deputy Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Biden and Lapid will then attend a virtual meeting at the I2U2 forum with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed to discuss food security and other potential areas of cooperation between the UAE and Israel, a White House official said.
US President Joe Biden with then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the White House in Washington, DC, August 27, 2021. (Sarahbeth Maney-Pool/Getty Images/AFP)
Biden will then meet with President Isaac Herzog at his residence in Jerusalem, where he will be presented with the Medal of Honor, before speaking with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden will also address the crowd with Lapid and Bennett at the opening of the Maccabiah Jewish Olympics on Thursday night.
On Friday, Biden will visit Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, a cornerstone of the Palestinian health system that works with Israeli health care providers. It will mark the first time a sitting US president has visited a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem that is not the Old City. There, Biden will announce US funding for a network of hospitals in East Jerusalem, as well as funding from other Gulf states.
Biden will then travel to Bethlehem for a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, after which he will announce a number of steps the US and Israel plan to take to strengthen the Palestinian Authority; The exact details have not yet been finalized, a senior US official said.
After his meeting with Abbas, Biden will travel directly to Saudi Arabia, where he is scheduled to attend Saturday’s GCC+3 summit with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders, including representatives from Qatar, Jordan and Iraq.
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