This is some new news about Israeli plans to build in the Ma'ale Adumim Settlement to the east of Jerusalem (the settlement holds a territory larger than all of West Jerusalem).
Morover, it says something about what kind of "contiguity" the Israelis have in store (with US approval) for the future Palestinian state. The contiguity will entail bypass roads connecting the Palestinian islands to the north and south of Jerusalem. (They also plan to make the West Bank and Gaza 'contiguous' in the same manner).
What an enlightened occupation!!!!
Bryan -----------------------------------
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1007502&tw=wn_wire_story
Israel's New Jerusalem Plan Angers Palestinians
Reuters logo Monday, March 21, 2005 2:11 a.m. ET
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel plans to build thousands of new homes in the occupied West Bank to cement its hold on Jerusalem, government sources said Monday, drawing a Palestinian warning that peace efforts were at risk.
The blueprint for two new neighborhoods linking the Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim to Arab East Jerusalem appeared to flout a U.S.-backed peace "road map" whose final vision is disputed by Israel and the Palestinians. The road map requires a halt to settlement-building on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want as part of a future state.
But President Bush said in 2004 that Israel, which intends to quit the occupied Gaza Strip this year, could expect to keep some West Bank settlement blocs under an accord.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week approved the construction of 3,500 new homes to secure "Greater Jerusalem," which Israel calls its undivided capital in a move not recognized internationally.
Government sources confirmed the report apart from the number of homes.
BYPASS ROAD
One source said the figure would be in the "low thousands" and added Sharon had also ordered the building of a road to bypass the area and link the Palestinian-ruled cities to the north and south of Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem.
"The prime minister is thinking ahead, to giving the Palestinians territorial contiguity," the source said.
But the Palestinians, whose President Mahmoud Abbas joined Sharon last month in declaring a cease-fire and who wants East Jerusalem for a capital, accused the Jewish state of poor faith in peacemaking.
"By expanding settlements in the West Bank, Israel gives the impression that it intends to exchange Gaza for a 'Greater Israel'," said Palestinian Planning Minister Ghassan al-Khatib.
"Israel is responsible for any consequences resulting from this continuous violation of the road map," he said. "I don't think the Palestinian leadership and people can tolerate this."
[...]