Israel Set to Expand in West Bank to 'Bury' Palestinian State

Israel plans to expand settlements into an area of the West Bank that would effectively bisect the enclave — a move its finance minister said "buries the idea of a Palestinian state."

- DAN WILLIAMS

The expansion into the 3,000 acres known as E1 that run between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim — long excluded from settlement plans — would amount to a major rebuke of growing Western calls to recognise Palestinian statehood. It comes as the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has authorised a large-scale increase in settlement building in the West Bank — widely considered a violation of international law — over the past year and plans to take over the Gaza Strip.