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"Ma'ale Adummim was (thus) built in complete disregard" of international and local law. The initially ordered 3,500 hectares were increased to 4,800 to connect the area to Jerusalem's municipal borders. It's now the largest land area settlement.
Then in March 2009, a Change of Borders Commission recommended a further 1,150 hectare increase by integrating the Qedar settlement, all state lands lying between it and Ma'ale Adummim, and additional lands within the enlarged city limits. The Commission ignored objections and the fact that there's no justification or need for further expansion except to seize more Palestinian land, sever the southern and northern West Bank sections, and exacerbate the forced separation between East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank toward eventually making the entire city Jewish.
In 2005, a new master plan was prepared that doesn't comply with Jordanian planning law, applicable to the West Bank. Statutory documents are binding and open to the public to object. However, master plans are unpublished and unavailable for public viewing.
"....they define, in a general-outline manner, the zoning of the area to which they apply and dictate its development. (In addition), the public cannot object to them, so that the burden of hearing public objections and considering them is avoided. Hence, master plans often serve as a means to bypass the legal requirement (to) prevent any involvement of the public - Palestinians in particular...."
After a Civil Administration's Higher Planning Council (HPC) hearing, its minutes showed plan's main objective is to facilitate substantial population growth up to 103,000 residents. To accommodate it, a new road system will be built connected to Israel's national network. Also, an airstrip, rail line, exhibition center and garbage facility besides everything in earlier plans.
Ignored completely is Palestinian-owned land, enclaves not part of Ma'ale Adummim's statutory outline plans, although they're surrounded on all sides by the settlement's jurisdiction area. The idea is to include them incrementally while continuing a policy of home demolitions and forced expulsions.
The Separation Wall is another issue. In April 2006, the government amended its route 14 km east of the Green Line and 11 km from Jerusalem's post-1967 border. It leaves most of Ma'ale Adummim's jurisdiction area on the Israeli side, except for some desert lands east and south.
The route will create a 6,400 hectare enclave which, besides the settlements, includes the Palestinian a-Za'ayem village of 3,500 residents and 3,000 al-Ka'abaneh, a-Sawahrah and Jahalin tribe Bedouins. The result will trap thousands of Palestinians in the "seam zone" between the Wall and Green Line, making their lives a bureaucratic nightmare requiring permits to live in their own homes and villages besides free movement restrictions.
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