B'Tselem: Settlements control 42% of West Bank

Only 1.7 percent of the territory of the West Bank is built-up settlement area, while the territory "controlled by the settlements" amounts to 41.9 percent of the West Bank, according to a report published yesterday by B'Tselem, the Israeli information center for human rights in the territories.

The report - entitled "Land Grab: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank" and compiled by researcher Yehezkel Lein - notes that 6.8 percent of the West Bank is area within the boundaries of the national outline plan for the Jewish settlement enterprise, while a further
35.1 percent is land that falls under the jurisdiction of the Jewish local and regional councils, beyond the borders of the outline plan.

The report divides the West Bank into four lengthwise strips.

The Eastern strip, which includes the Jordan Valley, the shores of the Dead Sea and eastern slopes of the West Bank ridge, is home to 5,400 Jewish settlers. The municipal boundaries of this strip encompass some 76,000 dunams, yet the areas under the jurisdiction of the regional
councils that are not included within the municipal boundaries total some 1.2 million dunams.