In April 2009, An Israel Interior ministry panel recommended Sunday expanding the West Bank’s largest settlement in a decision Israeli human rights groups said will likely create serious political fallout and further block efforts for peace.

The internal panel, established by the interior ministry over a year ago to investigate the possibility of further expansion in Palestinian Occupied Territories, recommended unifying the 800-resident settlement of Kedar with the largest West Bank settlement, Maale Adumim, which has a population of 34,500 residents.

Settlements are one of the obstacles in the tortured Middle East peace process, and the Annapolis agreement signed by Israel and Palestinian Authorities in 2007 prohibited settlement expansion, also considered illegal under international law.

"Merging the two settlements will finally kill any possibility of a two state solution," Angela Godfrey, field coordinator for the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, told AlArabiya.net. Connecting Kedar with Maale Adumim creates a permanent link between Jerusalem and its largest West Bank settlement.

"This will effectively suffocate East Jerusalem neighborhoods by surrounding them with settlements and preventing commercial access for Palestinians," Godfrey explained, adding that with house demolitions in East Jerusalem on the one hand and settlement expansion on the other, Israel is de facto evacuating Palestinians.

Consolidating Kedar with Maale Adumim is part of a larger master plan to construct 6,000 new housing units to fit 25,000 new settlers. If passed, the expansion plan would take over the last remaining green belt Palestinians of East Jerusalem have for natural expansion of a growing population.

The proposed plan creates a wedge of Israeli buildings into the occupied territory of the West Bank, fragmenting Palestinians into small, disconnected cantons and isolated neighborhoods.

If passed, the plan would effectively destroy the only salient commercial activity along the Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem route, which represents 30-40 percent of the Palestinian economy.

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Source:   http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/04/26/71469.html