Despite AFP coverage to the contrary, the IDF’s latest land confiscation which isn’t going to split the West Bank or threaten Palestinian viability.
Israel has ordered the confiscation of Arab land outside east Jerusalem, a newspaper and Palestinian officials said on Tuesday, reviving fears that the occupied West Bank could be split in two.
Issued late September, the order covers 110 hectares (272 acres) in four Palestinian villages between east Jerusalem and the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim, said Hassan Abed Rabbo, a senior official at the Palestinian local government ministry.
The land could create a bloc of settlements incorporating Maale Adumim and nearby Mishor Adumim and Kedar, and “prevent Palestinian territorial continuity” between the West Bank and Jordan Valley, he said.
As we pointed out last year, the Palestinians would still have territorial contiguity to the east of Maale Adumim. A helpful map published by our CAMERA colleagues dispels Abed Rabbo’s claim which AFP doesn’t question.
At its narrowest point, the channel of land available to the Palestinians would be 9 miles (15 km) wide, which happens to be the same size as Israel’s “waistline” for the past 50 years.
