The visit of US President Joe Biden later this week will disrupt traffic in central Israel as the main highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv will be closed for hours in both directions on Wednesday afternoon, police said on Sunday.
Biden will land at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday afternoon and depart from there on Friday afternoon en route to Saudi Arabia. Officially titled Blue Shield 3, security arrangements for the visit are said to include over 16,000 police officers, border guards and volunteers.
The Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, known as Route 1, will be closed between the Shapirim Interchange 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 roadblocks throughout the country’s center, Jerusalem and the highways leading there, during Biden’s visit, adding that details will be posted on Israel Police social media.
This includes many temporary road closures within Jerusalem Wednesday through Friday — according to Biden’s schedule — around King David Street, where the US President and his delegation will be.
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Meanwhile, prior to Biden’s arrival, the Israeli police and Israeli Air Force conducted drills across central Israel, mostly focused on securing travel between Biden’s scheduled destinations. The military exercise was due to end on Sunday evening.
The police presence will be concentrated in the area of Ben Gurion Airport, Jerusalem and the main roads into the capital. Police checkpoints and hotlines will be active throughout the US president’s visit, the statement said.
Illustrative: 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 stressed that all private aircraft, including drones, are banned from the airspace of Ben Gurion Airport and Jerusalem throughout the visit.
Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia is his first visit to the Middle East as US President, but his tenth visit to Israel overall. Originally scheduled for late June, his trip has been pushed back to this week due to planning issues that an Israeli official said were related to the Saudi Arabian leg of his trip. Biden accepted Israel’s invitation to visit in late April.
According to the latest version of Biden’s timetable, released on Thursday, the president will be greeted by Prime Minister Yair Lapid upon 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 scheduled to take part at Palmachim Air Force Base but was moved to the airport on Sunday to save on commute time and traffic regulations.
The show-and-tell will include an Iron Dome anti-missile battery, a nod to US efforts to grant Israel an additional $500 million in replacement batteries for the system after last year’s Gaza war. Biden’s tour will also feature the Iron Beam anti-laser missile system, which is designed to work with systems like Iron Dome and launch smaller projectiles.
He then travels to Jerusalem, where he visits the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.
On Thursday, Biden is scheduled to have various meetings with Israeli politicians, including Lapid and Deputy Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Biden and Lapid will then participate in a virtual I2U2 forum meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed to discuss food security and other potential areas of UAE-Israel cooperation discuss, said a White House official.
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 Jerusalem residence, where he will be presented with the Medal of Honor, and then speak with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden will also address the crowd with Lapid and Bennett at the opening of the Jewish Olympics in Maccabiah Thursday night.
On Friday, Biden will visit the Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem, a cornerstone of the Palestinian healthcare system that works with Israeli healthcare providers. It will be the first time a sitting US President has visited a largely Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem that is not the Old City. There, Biden will announce US funding for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, as well as funding from other Gulf countries.
Biden will then travel to Bethlehem for a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, after which he will announce a series of steps both the US and Israel plan to take to strengthen the Palestinian Authority. Exact details have not yet been finalized, a senior US official said.
Following his meeting with Abbas, Biden will travel directly to Saudi Arabia, where he will attend Saturday’s GCC+3 summit with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, including representatives from Qatar, Jordan and Iraq.
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