(Reuters) - The hillside called E1 is one of the few places around Jerusalem
that Jesus Christ might still recognize: a stony, dusty, barren slope on the way
down to the desert and the Dead Sea.
If Israel carries out plans announced this
week, it is destined to be the site of another Jewish settlement city, on
occupied land that the Palestinians believe must be part of the state for which
they have just won de facto U.N. recognition.
Roads that seem to go nowhere run up its rocky slopes and streetlights
provide slivers of shade from the often fierce sun. There is an Israeli police
station, but no houses or shops.
Known simply by its administrative name, E1 (East One), this exposed stretch
of West Bank land is at the centre of a growing diplomatic dispute pitting
Israel against both the Palestinians and also many of its Western
allies.
Stunned by the vote last week in the General Assembly that accorded Palestine
the status of a "non-member state" at the United Nations, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's government resurrected an old plan to build on the empty
outcrop.
Critics immediately warned that populating E1 with Israelis would cut off
East Jerusalem and carve up the West Bank, effectively thwarting any chance of
viability for a Palestinian state and thereby extinguishing the Middle East
peace process.
"This is not a routine settlement. This is the doomsday settlement," said
Daniel Seidemann, the founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem, an Israeli
non-governmental organization that monitors urban development in and around the
holy city.
"The message Israel should have learned from the U.N. vote is that we are on
very thin ice," he added. "By threatening E1 you are standing on thin ice and
jumping up and down."
That view is rejected by supporters of the project, who say construction is long overdue and represents
natural expansion from the neighboring Maale Adumim settlement - a city of
red-roofed apartment blocks that is home to more than 30,000 people.
Over half a million Israelis now live on land taken in the 1967 Middle East
war, claiming historical and biblical ties to territory that the Palestinians
say belongs to them.
The E1 site covers only some 4.6 square miles (12 square km) but is
geographically sensitive because it not only juts into the narrow "waist" of the
West Bank, but also backs onto East Jerusalem, where Palestinians want to
establish their capital.
CORRIDORS
Building on this area would complicate efforts to draw the contours of a
contiguous state for the Palestinians, making it more difficult for surrounding
Arab communities to link up.
However, supporters of the project say it is not a deal-breaker for any peace
treaty, arguing there would be enough space on either side of the hill to enable
a broad corridor that could connect the West Bank cities of Ramallah and
Bethlehem, respectively north and south of Jerusalem.
"The media are telling lies about this conflict all the time," said Eli Har
Nir, the municipality general director of Maale Adumim.
"You can't even see Jerusalem from here. There is still six kilometers of
open land that does not belong to E1 or to Maale Adumim," he said, arguing that
this space could be used to build roads for Palestinians.
Israel's closest ally, the United States, sees it differently and successive
administrations have cautioned against any building on the largely unpopulated
expanse of E1.
The White House swiftly denounced Friday's announcement, which came along
with news that the government also plans to build 3,000 additional homes in
other, undisclosed West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements.
A number of European Union governments went further, with Britain, France and
Sweden summoning their respective Israeli ambassadors to protest at what they
saw as an unacceptable reprisal against the Palestinians for the U.N.
vote.
The mood in neighboring Maale Adumim was more celebratory of the Israeli
move. Locals urged Netanyahu not to buckle under pressure but to push ahead with
the long-delayed E1 plans.
"Successive governments have all promised to build here, but what you can see
around me are empty hills, rocks and sand, not apartments," said Maale Adumim
mayor Benny Kashriel.
"I hope that this government, with this decision, will come through
immediately," he told reporters gathered on top of E1.
Israelis have already named the prospective settlement Mevasseret Adumim -
Tidings of Adumim. Maale Adumim itself means Red Heights - a reference to the
surrounding mountains that glow at sunset.
Preparation for building started long ago and a sealed-off bridge stands
ready to link Maale Adumim with its projected sister settlement, while a major
road intersection swings up into E1 from the highway that heads down to the
nearby Dead Sea.
If you take the exit today, the only people you are likely to find are
Bedouin shepherds following their ragged goat herds in search of the occasional
tuft of grass.
Israeli authorities drew up plans in 2006 to move the Arab Bedouin to another
site. They have yet to act on it, but rights groups say the project is
specifically designed to clear the way for E1 development.
Israel's Maariv newspaper said on Monday that the Israeli planning committee
for the West Bank would convene on Wednesday to approve plans for public review.
Without further delays, the earth-movers could be sent in within a year.
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