JERUSALEM, July 22 (UPI) -- Israeli authorities allegedly are planning to declare more of the West Bank as state land to expand settlements, a military document indicates.
The paper, written by Lt.Col. Zvi Cohen of the occupation's infrastructure department in January, was obtained by Rabbis for Human Rights under the freedom of information law and reported by Haaretz Friday.
The document empowers the government to take over land whose ownership is "undefined," the report said, enabling expansion of major Jewish settlement blocs like Ariel, Ma'aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion and construction in areas farther from the 1967 border, like the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea.
The planned expansions would make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible and prevent a solution based on the 1967 lines with land swaps, as proposed by U.S. President Barack Obama, the report said. There is not enough vacant land in Israel to compensate the Palestinians for such large annexations, surveys conducted during previous talks show.
Dror Etkes, an Israeli anti-occupation activist, said the newly defined state lands would legitimize at least 26 unauthorized "outposts" set up by radical settlers.
