Israeli Settlements Cover 42 Percent Of West Bank

Matti Friedman Huffington Post
07/ 6/10 02:21 PM
This report deals with two separate subjects, so I have split it into two:
[The original post has been taken down by Huffington Post; can't imagine why]
Also Tuesday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in Washington for talks with President Barack Obama, B'Tselem released a report showing that much of the West Bank, where Palestinians want to establish a state, is under the control of Israeli settlements.
Although the actual buildings of the settlements cover just 1 percent of the West Bank's land area, they have jurisdiction over more than 42 percent, the B'Tselem report said. Much of that land was seized from Palestinian landowners in defiance of an Israeli Supreme Court ban, the group said.
The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as part of a future state.
Dani Dayan, chairman of a settler umbrella group, disputed the report, saying settlements control just 9.2 percent of the West Bank, and charged that the report was aimed to sabotage the Netanyahu-Obama meeting.
Israeli government officials would not comment.