Editorial: Continuing Land Grab

Israel’s largesse in granting settlement licenses is boundless. Since the Annapolis conference in November, Israel has announced several new building projects in areas of Jerusalem the Palestinians will need for their future state. However, the latest announcement has an additional asterisk, for it marks the first time the Israeli government has approved construction deep in the West Bank. Which is why the optimism shown by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier this month seemed unwarranted. The new settlement expansion drive, which has been described as phenomenal, includes more than 600 settler units to be built on confiscated Arab land in East Jerusalem. The Israeli government also approved the building of 800 additional settler units in the Beitar Illit colony, an ultraorthodox settlement in the West Bank while agreeing to the construction of an undisclosed number of prefabs in small settlements in the southern Hebron region to be allocated to new immigrants. Editorial: Continuing Land Grab