Zionist settlements expanding in West Bank and Gaza
By Chris Marsden
The Peace Now organisation has issued reports detailing the expansion of Zionist settlements, despite pledges made by the Israeli government to halt their growth. The expansion is most significant in the Gaza Strip because of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s proposed “unilateral separation” initiative, which promises the removal of Israeli settlements there by 2005 combined with a land grab annexing half of the occupied West Bank permanently to Israel.
Even recently released Israeli government statistics are forced to acknowledge settlement growth, but downplay its true extent.
Currently, around 8,000 Jewish settlers occupy around 40 percent of the Gaza Strip, leaving 1.3 million Palestinians the remaining 60 percent.
According to Peace Now figures, in March, April and May an additional 455,000 square meters of construction and preparation of infrastructure took place in the settlements. Around 265,000 square meters were added to the settlements in the West Bank, and around 190,000 square meters in the Gaza Strip. Throughout the Occupied Territories, there are around 3,100 housing blocs being built, in addition to the preparation of areas for construction of thousands of further housing units.
Most of these settlement areas are widening to new agricultural lands.
As well as settlement activity, Peace Now documents the construction and expansion of smaller and illegal outposts—including more than 50 satellite photographs and other pictures showing construction work, land clearance, road and house building, etc.
Outpost growth has continued unchecked, and few outposts have been removed. And when one is removed, it is swiftly replaced somewhere else.
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