B'Tselem: Settlements control 42% of West Bank
By Nadav Shragai, Ha'aretz Correspondent
Only 1.7 percent of the territory of the West Bank is built-up settlement area, while the territory "controlled by the settlements" amounts to 41.9 percent of the West Bank, according to a report published yesterday by B'Tselem, the Israeli information center for human rights in the territories.
The report -- entitled "Land Grab: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank" and compiled by researcher Yehezkel Lein -- notes that 6.8 percent of the West Bank is area within the boundaries of the national outline plan for the Jewish settlement enterprise, while a further 35.1 percent is land that falls under the jurisdiction of the Jewish local and regional councils, beyond the borders of the outline plan.
The report divides the West Bank into four lengthwise strips.
The Eastern strip, which includes the Jordan Valley, the shores of the Dead Sea and eastern slopes of the West Bank ridge, is home to 5,400 Jewish settlers. The municipal boundaries of this strip encompass some 76,000 dunams, yet the areas under the jurisdiction of the regional councils that are not included within the municipal boundaries total some 1.2 million dunams.
Some 34,000 settlers live in the Mountain strip. The municipal boundaries of the settlements in this strip encompass 62,000 dunams, but another 409,000 dunams that are not a part of any particular settlement fall under the jurisdictions of the area's four regional councils.
The Western Hills strip stretches, from north to south, across an area 10-20 kilometers wide between the western border of the Mountain strip and the Green Line. Around 85,000 settlers live in this area, within municipal boundaries encompassing 110,000 dunams. A further 264,000 dunams come under the jurisdictions of the three regional councils in the strip.
The settlements in the Jerusalem metropolis, which, according to B'Tselem, includes the city's new neighborhoods, are home to 247,000 individuals, within municipal boundaries encompassing 130,000 dunams. Another 90,000 dunams fall under the authority of the two regional councils in this strip.
B'Tselem chairman Prof. Anat Biletzki yesterday told a news conference the manner in which the settlements and their jurisdictions were laid out prevented any possibility of creating a territorial continuum between Palestinian cities and towns. The layout, she added, markedly reduced the economic, and particularly agricultural, development potential of the Palestinians.
In the Eastern strip, Biletzki said, the Palestinians were even denied the use of a significant portion of the water resources. Biletzki and other organization officials yesterday called for all settlements to be dismantled the residents financially compensated.
In the chapter of the report on incentives to move to the settlements, the report notes that "most of the settlements in the West Bank are defined as National Priority Zones A or B, and, as such, the settlers and other Israeli citizens who work in the settlements or have invested in them are entitled to significant economic benefits."
For example, in 2000, Jewish local councils in the West Bank received grants from the government averaging 65 percent more than those received by their counterparts inside Israel. Settlement regional councils received grants averaging 165 percent more than their counterparts in Israel, the report notes.
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