Maale Adumim lies 4.5 kilometres east of the 1967 pre-occupation border and 2 kilometres east of the Israeli-defined municipal boundary of Jerusalem — a boundary deemed illegal by the international community. Currently, some 30,000 settlers live in Maale Adumim. While construction was underway on hundreds of new units tendered last year, the Israeli government approved construction of an additional 2,100 units this year, which could house another 10,000 new settlers. All these plans defy international law and are a direct challenge to US President Bush’s so-called Middle East peace road map.

Another 3,500 units, which could house over 15,000 new settlers, have been approved in the E-1 Plan. The plan aims to link Maale Adumim to Jerusalem, at the expense of Palestinian Christian and Muslim communities that lie in between.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on August 24 that when complete, Israel’s wall around Maale Adumim "would put the easternmost point of the fence some 25 kilometres from the Green Line, or about half the width of the West Bank. Both the Palestinians and the international community say it would therefore prevent the establishment of a viable Palestinian state, as it would impede territorial contiguity between the southern and northern West Bank" staking out an area for the Adumim bloc’s settlements larger than that of Tel Aviv.

Free Palestinian access to and from their capital, East Jerusalem, is essential to a viable two-state solution. Metropolitan East Jerusalem, which includes Bethlehem and Ramallah, accounts for 30-40 per cent of the Palestinian economy. The ancient city is also the historic cultural, religious  and political centre of Palestinian life.

Palestinian access to East Jerusalem could also promote the success of Gaza ‘disengagement’: creating links between East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip could help reinvigorate Gaza’s decimated economy by providing Palestinians in Gaza with access to East Jerusalem’s unique international market.

However, Maale Adumim, Israel’s Wall and the settlement rings around East Jerusalem cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and slice the West Bank in two. Fragmenting and severing East Jerusalem from the communities on which it has historically depended means that it is increasingly difficult for Jerusalem’s historic Palestinian communities to sustain themselves. If enacted, the E-1 Plan will provide territorial contiguity for 30,000 illegal settlers by denying that contiguity for 2.4 million Palestinians in the rest of the occupied West Bank.

Israeli officials have countered that a road could be built to link Ramallah to Bethlehem. Ramallah is located north of East Jerusalem and Bethlehem to the city’s south. This proposal, however, would still deny Palestinians access to the East Jerusalem because the road would bypass the city. It would also facilitate the expansion of Israel’s settlements and the construction of Israel’s Wall, all illegal under international law and would continue to restrict the natural development of Palestinian communities on Palestinian land, forcing Palestinians into ever-shrinking bantustans.

On February 7 this year, The Washington Post confirmed Israel’s Jerusalem strategy when it released the findings of an investigative report. The investigation concluded that all of Israel’s ministries had conspired to violate both international law and Israeli law to consolidate its hold in Jerusalem while severing Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. ‘Disengagement’ proves that Israel can reverse its illegal settlement policy, but the harm to historic Palestinian communities may not be reversible.

In an interview with Haaretz newspaper on 5 December 2003, Ehud Olmert, Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister said [The] formula for the parameters of unilateral solution are: To maximise the number of Jews; minimise the number of Palestinians; not to withdraw to the 1967 border and not to divide Jerusalem.

And on October 6 2004 the same newspaper reported Dov Weisglass, senior adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as saying the significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process. And when you freeze that process you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda.

The settlement expansion in the West Bank, and what the Israeli leaders are admitting publicly, is clear indication that the Israeli government is not working towards achieving a viable two-state solution. And with it, any hope of stability and peace in the Middle East.

One of the important lessons to be learnt from Israel’s withdrawal of 9,000 settlers and its dismantlement of 25 settlements in the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, in a period of one week, is that it could dismantle the rest of the West Bank settlements in less than a year. Settlements are a huge obstacle to peace and must be dismantled.

Gaza cannot sustain itself and has always been subsidised by the West Bank through tourism, trade and labour. Palestinian concerns are that Israel will turn the Gaza Strip into the biggest concentration camp in history if it refuses to withdraw from the crossing-point into Gaza and the Gaza seashore, disallows the building of a seaport, two passageways and using Gaza’s international airport. The two passageways and the operation of the airport and seaport were agreed to by Israel in the Oslo accords.

The international community must seize the ‘disengagement’ and not lose another opportunity for peace, rather than to allow Israel to disengage from the two-state solution. The Palestinian leadership is committed to returning immediately to the road map for peace, which includes a freeze on all settlement construction.

Ali Kazak is Head of the General Palestinian Delegation to Australia & New Zealand Ambassador of Palestine to Vanuatu & East Timor