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Israel’s new project to annex Maaleh Adumim settlement to Jerusalem

March 23, 2017 at 12:55 pm

Area E1 of occupied Jerusalem [Issam Rimawi/Apaimages]

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday that the Israeli government has been advancing new construction projects in Area E1 of occupied Jerusalem where construction has been delayed for more than a decade for political reasons.

According to the newspaper, the Israeli government has resorted to these projects in order to connect the illegal Maale Adumim settlement to the occupied holy city of Jerusalem “quietly” due to its fears of the international community’s reaction to a more overt annexation of Maaleh Adumim.

The newspaper reported that Israeli bulldozers and heavy equipment have recently moved into the area and begun building a new junction on Highway 1 which connects Jerusalem with Maale Adumim in order to divert Palestinian traffic from the current route, under a project approved in September 2013.

Read: Secret Israeli plan to annex West Bank settlement

The Maale Adumim project seeks to impose further Israeli control over illegal settlements built on Palestinian lands in East Jerusalem, as well as area E1 which was previously annexed to the settlement.

Construction in Area E1, which extends north and west of the settlement, was been suspended since 2005 for political reasons related to international criticism.

Settlement construction in this area would separate the northern West Bank from its south, making the dream of a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.

Read: Legalising settlements and liquidating the West Bank in the Trump era

Khalil Tafakji, director of maps and information systems at the Arab Studies Society, said “the project to annex the Maale Adumim settlement is old and within the Jerusalem 2050 plan, which provides for the establishment of the largest airport in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Tafakji explained to Quds Press that Israel has strategic objectives behind the Maale Adumim project, including “ending the idea of Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state and separating the northern West Bank from its south, where entry and exit will be authorised by Israel or forcing Palestinians to move from and to the north of the West Bank, across the Jordan Valley.”