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Israel expands
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The Israeli government has more than doubled the size of a dozen of its settlements on the West Bank, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, by seizing Palestinian land for “special security areas” – by military order.
The justification is that these lands are needed as “warning areas” – but they are used by settlers, exposing their real purpose: the seizure of Palestinian land.
Figures compiled from official sources by Israeli peace group Peace Now indicate that the rate of house-building in settlements has doubled since last year. The Housing Ministry initiated 433 new housing units during the period January-May 2008, com-pared to just 240 housing units in the same period last year.
Peace Now research suggests that 1,000 new buildings are being constructed. Over half are to the east of the “security” wall (which obviously cannot “protect” Israelis to the east of it).
All such construction is illegal, and undermines hopes of negotiating a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.