Israel har beslaglagt 2.000 mål på Vesbredden for å kunne utvide bosettingen Efrat med 2.500 boliger. Palestinske selvstyremyndigheter sier fredssamtaler dermed er overflødige. Utvidelse av bosettinger er neppe hva Obamas utsending George Mitchell ønsker seg.

Israel opened the way for possible expansion of the Efrat settlement by taking control of a nearby West Bank hill of 423 acres. The rocky plot was recently designated state land and is part of a master plan that envisions the settlement growing from 9,000 to 30,000 residents, Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi said.

Israeli officials said any new construction would require several years more of planning and stages of approval.
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Nearly 290,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements today, or 95,000 more than in May 2001, when Mitchell led a U.S. fact-finding mission to the West Bank to find ways of ending several months of Israeli-Palestinian violence and resuming peace talks.

At the time, Mitchell called on Palestinian authorities to rein in militants involved in deadly bombings and shootings against Israelis, and he said Israel must freeze all settlement construction.

The newly designated state land, called «Eitam Hill» by settlers, is more than 2 kilometers (a mile) north of Efrat and just east of a cluster of Palestinian towns and villages, with biblical Bethlehem at the center.

Det kan være at planene er ment å teste Obamas viljestyrke.

Israel seizes land for settlement expansion