Israel takes over West Bank hill for settlement expansion

efrat, west bank  |  Plans to expand a West Bank settlement by up to 2,500 homes has drawn Palestinian condemnation and presented an early test for President Barack Obama, whose Mideast envoy is well known for opposing such construction.

Israel opened the way for possible expansion of the Efrat settlement by taking control of a nearby West Bank hill of 423 acres. The rocky plot recently was designated state land and is part of a master plan that envisions the settlement growing from 9,000 to 30,000 residents, Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi said.

Israeli soldiers vote last week at a military outpost near the West Bank settlement of Efrat, which has been seized by Israel for settlement expansion. photo/ap/peter dejon

The outgoing government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said it reserves the right to keep building in large West Bank settlement blocs that it wants to annex as part of a final peace deal with the Palestinians. Efrat is in one of those blocs.

The composition of Israel’s next government is not clear yet, because the Feb. 10 elections were inconclusive. However, right-wing parties are given a better chance to form a ruling coalition, with hard-line leader Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.

Speaking to U.S. Jewish leaders Feb. 16, the two contenders for leading the new Israeli government expressed their differences over the Palestinian issue.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, whose centrist Kadima party won 28 of the 120 seats in parliament, said Israel must withdraw in a peace deal from “parts of the Land of Israel,” a reference to the West Bank.

Netanyahu, whose hawkish Likud won 27 seats, said he does not want to govern Palestinians but insisted on Israeli control of borders, airspace and electronic communications.

Netanyahu supports settlement expansion and has derided peace talks with the Palestinians as a waste of time, saying he would focus instead on trying to improve the Palestinian economy. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called Netanyahu’s approach unacceptable, and his aides said recently that peace talks can resume only if settlement construction is halted.

Settlement expansion is likely to create friction not only with the Palestinians but also with Obama, whose Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, has long pushed for a freeze on the expansion of Jewish settlements.

Still, settlements have grown steadily, including during the past year of U.S.-backed peace talks that ended without results.

Nearly 290,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements today, or 95,000 more than in May 2001, when Mitchell led a U.S. fact-finding mission to the West Bank.

The newly designated state land, which settlers call Eitam Hill, is more than a mile north of Efrat and just east of a cluster of Palestinian towns and villages, with biblical Bethlehem at the center.

Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group involved in the case, said over the years Israel’s government has assigned almost all areas designated as state land to settlements. Yesh Din said that is a violation of international law, which requires an occupying power to act for the benefit of the local population.