Plans for new West Bank settlement could lead to total encirclement of Bethlehem
Israel is making plans to build a new settlement in the occupied West Bank that will leave Bethlehem completely surrounded.
Its hard-right government has allocated 120 hectares for the neighbourhood, which will expand the Efrat settlement towards the West Bank city.
The new construction, which is referred to by critics as E2, would prevent the city from developing outwards.
New building in the north of Bethlehem is restricted already by the Jewish outpost of Har Homa. The creation of this new settlement neighbourhood would leave the famed city surrounded on all sides.
The area is highly sensitive because of Bethlehem’s status as a top Palestinian tourist site, where Christians and Muslims live and worship alongside one another.
But the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been emboldened by Donald Trump’s administration, which has sided with Israel in the decades-long conflict, and it has continued to permit building settlement homes unopposed in the West Bank.
About 400,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, with more than 100,000 more living in East Jerusalem.
Israel occupied both territories in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and the Palestinians believe it is planning to annex the West Bank in hope of achieving a “greater Israel”.
The international community has condemned the settlement enterprise regularly, but Israel has continued building without opposition, other than Palestinian protests and attacks. The settlers are also protected by thousands of soldiers.
The building of Jewish outposts in the West Bank and the transfer of Israeli citizens into the territory is considered illegal under international law.
Palestinian officials have cut off all ties with the US over its moves in favour of Israel. Its failure to censure Israel’s settlement enterprise, is just one reason why relations between Palestine and the US are at an all-time low.
Palestinians view the settlements as an attempt to prevent a contiguous Palestinian state on Israel’s border.
Settlers have not only conducted attacks against Palestinians, but also against the Israeli security forces who defend them, such is the settlers’ devotion to possessing as much West Bank land as possible.
Despite the break in ties, the US says it will still release a peace plan to end the conflict, even though the Palestinians have said that they will not agree to any deal unless Mr Trump rolls back his unilateral moves, such as the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“The PLO has nothing to do with negotiations,” a senior Palestinian official told The National last week. “And we’re not waiting for anything. We have already said that the US has disqualified itself from playing any role.”
Confirmed details of that plan have yet to be released, but US ambassador to Israel David Friedman said on Saturday that the plan would be delayed again, and it is now expected to be released “within the next several months”.
Mr Friedman said the plan needed some “smoothing”.