Reuters has published an extensive article with maps showing how the infrastructure of the Israeli settlement enterprise is not only making a Palestinian State impossible, but is even making daily life for the 2.7 million Palestinians who live there, increasingly difficult. Israeli settlements have grown in size and number since Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war. They stretch deep into the territory with a system of roads and other infrastructure under Israeli control, further slicing up the land, Reuters reports. Palestinians want their capital to be East Jerusalem, which Israel also captured in 1967, and has annexed. Israel has declared Jerusalem as its own undivided capital, although only a handful of countries recognize it as such.
Reuters takes note of the UN’s International Court of Justice ruling in July demanding that Israel end the occupation, but there’s no sign of that happening. By linking up with other Israeli-controlled areas, the new settlement block approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also known as E1, would go still further, cutting the West Bank in half and severing it from East Jerusalem. Some Israeli ministers are now pressing for formal annexation of the West Bank, supposedly as a response to allies recognizing Palestine.
