It is only a fifteen minute bus ride from Jerusalem to the Ma'ale
Adumim settlement. After entering through guarded gates, one's
first impression is of a Miami-style suburb. The town at noon seems
almost abandoned because the major part of Ma'ale Adumim
residents head off to work in Jerusalem during the day.

But once reaching the fence that surrounds Ma'ale Adumim, an odd
feeling begins to creep over oneself. This neatly planned concrete
patchwork seems totally out of place in the surrounding arid
Palestinian landscape. Leaving the city behind by a rare gap in the
fence, another reality instantly emerges. Just outside the fence, on
the edge of the hill, a Bedouin shepherd and his son are herding their
flock of sheep. The contrast between the two worlds could not be
more striking.

Founded in 1975 by a small group of settlers, Ma'ale Adumim is now
one of Israel's biggest settlements. Located in the central West Bank
the entire area of Ma'ale Adumim, including currently built-up areas
and areas reserved for expansion, occupy a startling one percent of
the total territory of the West Bank. Ma'ale Adumim has clearly grown
into a major Israeli town, and is now home to some 35,000 residents.
While its population consists of a mix of religious and secular Jews, it
remains a Jewish-only town.

Despite all promises made by Israel during ongoing peace talks to halt
settlement construction, Ma'ale Adumim is booming, with a population
growth rate of 5.3 percent in 2006.

Settlements built on Palestinian territory occupied by Israel during and
after the 1967 War are explicitly illegal under international law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly states that
"The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own
civilian population into the territory it occupies." So the presence of
some 470,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem, is undoubtedly a violation of the Geneva Convention.
Furthermore, the issue of Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory
continues to obstruct attempts to reach a just and lasting peace.

Although Ma'ale Adumim looks like a sleepy suburb, the settlement is
of great strategic value to Israel because of its location east of
Jerusalem. Israel has a long-term plan to connect the Ma'ale Adumim
settlement with the ring of Israeli settlements surrounding East
Jerusalem, also occupied in 1967, in an effort to undermine Palestinian
claims to this part of the city as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

This so-called E1 plan aims to fill the gap between Ma'ale Adumim and
the settlements in East Jerusalem with new settlement housing units,
thereby creating territorial continuity on the ground. This in turn will
create a gateway to the Jordan Valley, another region that Israel
considers to be of major strategic importance.

In addition, the connection of Ma'ale Adumim with the settlements in
East Jerusalem, together with the bypass roads joining them, and the
wall surrounding them will hamper the growth of any Palestinian town
or neighborhood located in, or in the vicinity of Jerusalem and will
ensure Israel's hold over the city. For this reason, all leading Israeli
politicians have expressed their intention to keep Ma'ale Adumim,
together with other large settlement blocs, under Israeli sovereignty
regardless of any final status negotiation with the Palestinians.

But this stand gravely jeopardizes the very idea of a future
Palestinian state, because it blocks territorial contiguity between the
northern and southern parts of the West Bank, making Palestine look
like a scattered collection of homelands separated by Israeli
settlements and bypass roads, and therefore non-viable as an
independent, sovereign state.

• BY TOPIC: Settlements and Settlers