Settlers now rule 42% of West Bank

 MSO

An Israeli human rights group has confirmed that Israeli settlers now control over 42 per cent of the West Bank.

B'Tselem released a report showing the extent of Israeli colonisation of the occupied territories as US President Barack Obama and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu headed into a White House meeting on how to revive the long-dormant peace process.

The report, based on official Israeli documents, confirms what activists have known for some time - that settlements have taken over Palestinian lands far beyond their immediate perimeters.

"The extensive geographic-spatial changes that Israel has made in the landscape of the West Bank undermine the negotiations that Israel has conducted for 18 years with the Palestinians and breach its international obligations," B'Tselem said.

Although the actual buildings of the settlements cover just 1 per cent of the West Bank's land area, their jurisdiction and regional councils extend to more than 42 per cent, the group said.

Twenty-one per cent of the land for these settlements was seized from Palestinian landowners, much of it after Israel's Supreme Court outlawed the practice in 1979.

Settlers disputed the figures and said that the report was politically motivated, while Israeli officials made no comment.

Chairman of the settlers council Dani Dayan insisted that settlers controlled just 9.2 per cent of the West Bank, not 42 per cent. About 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and an additional 180,000 live in east Jerusalem.

Israel annexed both territories from Jordan in the 1967 war, along with the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

The international community has earmarked all three areas for a future state of Palestine. Israel's continued construction of housing exclusively for Jewish citizens in east Jerusalem is preventing progress towards a resumption of peace talks.

The Palestinian National Authority has refused to sit down with Mr Netanyahu until he agrees to freeze illegal settlement construction.

Mr Obama has called on Israeli authorities in Jerusalem to halt settlement construction and on the Palestinians to show progress on security and do more to prevent violence against Israel.