[Timber Loftis]

More info on the illegal annexing of land:

September 30, 2003, NY Times
Israel Expected to Approve Plan for New West Bank Barrier
By GREG MYRE

JERUSALEM, Sept. 30 — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government is expected to approve a plan on Wednesday for building a controversial separation barrier deep inside the West Bank around Ariel, one of the largest Jewish settlements.

The move could put the Israeli government at odds with the Bush administration, which opposes construction of the barrier on West Bank land in general, and which recently warned Israel not to proceed with this segment in particular.

Mr. Sharon on Monday expressed his support for building a fence around the settlement of Ariel, which is about 15 miles inside the West Bank. The measure appears set to win Cabinet approval at a session Wednesday, Israeli officials said.

But in an attempt to avoid a confrontation with the Americans, the Israelis plan to build in two stages.

Initially, Israel would place a fence around Ariel, but the barrier would not run from the settlement to the West Bank boundary, Israeli officials said.

After Ariel is encircled with the new fence, a process expected to take months, the government would again consult with the United States and decide whether to extend the fence from Ariel to the West Bank boundary, where it would meet up with the existing barrier.

"Israel is making this proposal to take care of its security concerns without getting into a fight with the United States," said Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Mr. Sharon. "The fence is a security statement, not a political statement."

Palestinians, meanwhile, say Israel is seizing large tracts of Palestinian land and is attempting to unilaterally set a future border.

"This will further radicalize Palestinian society," said Ghassan Khatib, the Palestinian labor minister. By dipping deep into the West Bank, the barrier will also make it difficult to establish a viable Palestinian state in any negotiations, he said.

Mr. Khatib said he believed the United States could force Israel to back down. "We don't think the Israelis will do something the Americans really don't want," he said.

Israel says the barrier, a network of electronic fences, concrete walls, trenches and guard towers, is a necessary shield against Palestinian attackers who have carried out more than 100 suicide bombings over the last three years.

But the Palestinians, and some people in the international community, say the main issue is the route Israel has chosen. The first part of the barrier was completed this summer in the northern West Bank, and it cuts several miles into Palestinian areas in many places.

The fence around Ariel would mark the deepest penetration into the West Bank to date.

William J. Burns, the United States assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said in Detroit on Monday that by building the barrier well inside the West Bank, Israel "isolates Palestinians from each other, prejudges negotiations and, like settlement activity, takes us further from the two-state goal."

A report released today in Geneva by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights said the barrier would effectively annex Palestinian land.

Israel has "legitimate" security concerns, but "some limit must be placed on the violation of human rights in the name of counterterrorism," said John Dugard, a South African lawyer and the author of the report.

Ariel, which has close to 20,000 residents, is about 20 miles north of Jerusalem. Many commute to jobs in Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv, though the settlement is large enough to include a university with several thousand students.

Ariel already has an ordinary fence around its perimeter and, like all large settlements, is well-guarded by the Israeli security forces. Palestinian militants have carried out attacks near the entrance to the settlement, but have not breached the existing fence.

Still, Ariel residents have insisted that they be included on the western, or Israeli, side of the new, more elaborate barrier.

Israel plans to build the barrier on or near the entire West Bank boundary, and it is expected to stretch for more than 300 miles when it is completed.

In a separate development today, three Israelis were sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison for parking a truck bomb next to a Palestinian girls' school in east Jerusalem in April of last year.

Police caught the men at the scene during the middle of the night. The bomb was set to go off in the morning when the students arrived, but Israeli authorities neutralized the explosive.

Since the Mideast violence began three years ago, Jewish extremists have killed at least nine Palestinians, according to Israeli officials.

Also, Israeli soldiers blew up the family home of an Islamic Jihad gunman who shot dead two Israelis, including a 7-month-old girl, in a West Bank attack last Friday, the start of the Jewish New Year.

The troops demolished the home of Mahmoud Hamdan in a village near Hebron, in the West Bank. Mr. Hamdan was killed during the Friday night attack.

Israel regularly tears down the homes of Palestinian assailants, saying it believes the practice deters other Palestinians from carrying out such attacks.