Below is an article from Haartz, "Peace Now Report: Settlements Build on Just 9% of State Allocated Land." When reading this report of the illegal expansion of these illegal settlements which grab even more land then what is necessary and then in addition building on Palestinian land, I searched for a map of the settlements. This most recent map, June 4, 2007 struck me like a lightening bolt, the orange areas are those areas inacessable to Palestinians or with restrictions. Note where these areas are- to the EAST of the land on which the Palestinians are living. So they are sandwiched, being squeezed from ALL directions. Then there are the roads, (map) Jewish only roads criss-crossing and slicing through the Palestinian lands that are SUPPOSED to be theirs. The wall, (map)encroaching on Palestinian land beyond the green line. Then there are the checkpoints (map)on the roads Palestinians travel. And the "flying checkpoints" which are set up randomly cannot even be mapped. . Israel says they want peace. HOGWASH!!!! Without removing EVERY LAST settlement, peace is IMPOSSIBLE. How can there POSSIBLY be a two-state solution with a map like this? And yet the United States is continuing to support this, sending more money to Israel than all other foreign countries combined. Poor Israel? WAKE UP AMERICA. END THE OCCUPATION AND REMOVE ALL THE SETTLEMENTS.
Peace Now report: Settlements build on just 9 percent of state-allocated land
By Amos Harel
West Bank settlements have been allocated huge amounts of land, but use very little of it, according to a Peace Now report. Only nine percent of the area under settlement jurisdiction has been built on, and only 12 percent is being used at all, the report said, citing Civil Administration figures.
But despite their huge unused land reserves, 90 percent of the settlements exceed their boundaries, and about one-third of the territory they do use lies outside their jurisdiction, the report added. The findings attest to the government's ongoing cooperation with the settlements' expansion, Peace Now charged: On one hand, the state earmarks huge tracts for the settlements, out of all all proportion to their size, in order to prevent Palestinian construction in those areas. Yet once an area is closed to Palestinians, the settlers begin seizing adjacent Palestinian lands, often privately owned, that lie outside their jurisdiction.
Google Earth: Free Palestine
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