RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israel has invested close to 200 million shekels ($ 49.4 million) in preparing infrastructure for construction of 3,500 housing units in a new Jewish settlement to create a contiguous block between West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim and East Jerusalem.
The daily Haaretz said that the Ma’aleh Adumim municipality is planning to build the neighborhood of Mevaseret Adumim in the controversial Area E-1 that will constitute contiguous construction between Ma’aleh Adumim and Gush Adumim and link it with East Jerusalem.
E-1 is short for “East 1,” the administrative name given to the stretch of 12,000 dunam (2,965 acres) northeast of Jerusalem, to the west of Ma’aleh Adumim. For years, Israel has sought to develop E-1 in order to strengthen its hold on Ma’aleh Adumim, which is one of the largest settlements in the Palestinian territories (about 30,000 settlers), and one that all Israeli governments have said they want to keep under any future agreement with the Palestinians.
This contiguity would prevent Palestinian construction between East Jerusalem to West Bank city of Ramallah, and would make any future agreement between Israel and Palestinians difficult.
Therefore, the Palestinian Authority and the US have strongly opposed this sort of Israeli construction for more than a decade and successive Israeli governments have avoided construction in this area owing to US pressure.
