Israel Defense Forces
It says that the unofficial closing off of land to Palestinians, around these settlements, has been going on for 30 years.
But what has been happening more recently is the Israeli military formalising the expansion of these settlements through what are called "special security areas".
The group has calculated that this has more than doubled the overall area of the settlements.
Palestinians, despite privately owning half the land, now have no access to it.
The Israeli authorities argue that these measures are for security, to protect against Palestinian attacks, and that they need only be temporary.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement to the BBC that the security zones were needed to protect settlements. The IDF said the use of these zones had been approved a number of times by the Israeli Supreme Court and any building in them was illegal.
But B'Tselem insists that the security argument is specious: they say that settlers often move into the designated security buffer zones.
They also argue that it makes the agreed goal of a future Palestinian state all the more difficult to reach.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7609905.stm
Published: 2008/09/11 10:21:50 GMT
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