'Israel's' "Greater Jerusalem" engulfs heart of the West Bank
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
- New analysis shows ‘Israeli’ plan “Greater Jerusalem” will cut the West Bank into 235 isolated enclaves.
- Palestinian officials and rights groups warn the project undermines any viable contiguous Palestinian territory.
A controversial ‘Israeli’ expansion project known as “Greater Jerusalem” is set to fragment the West Bank into more than 235 isolated areas, deepening territorial division and threatening Palestinian continuity, analysts say.
Experts on Palestinian geography and settlement expansion warn the scheme, recently highlighted in interactive mapping research, would sever geographic links between Palestinian towns and villages, leaving them trapped in enclaves surrounded by ‘Israeli’ settler blocs and roads.
Read more: 'Israel's' security cabinet approves 19 new settlements in West Bank
Project scope
The “Greater Jerusalem” initiative seeks to legally expand Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries to include surrounding ‘Israeli’ settlements in the West Bank, notably Maale Adumim, Givat Zeev, and Gush Etzion, according to the Institute for Palestine Studies.
Under this plan, a network of roads and settlement infrastructure would link the city to these blocs, creating a continuous ‘Israeli’-controlled area. Palestinian neighbourhoods and towns, by contrast, would become disconnected pockets without territorial contiguity.
Critics describe the strategy as a staggered annexation that supercharges settlement growth while systematically dismantling the geographic foundation for a future Palestinian state.
Impact on Palestinians
Palestinian officials have condemned the proposal as a step toward de facto annexation and ethnic cleansing of parts of the West Bank. A Palestinian foreign ministry statement called the discussion of the plan in ‘Israel’s’ legislative committees a “major crime” that undermines any chance for Palestinian self-determination.
Rights groups and regional analysts say the road networks and settlement clusters envisioned in the project function to isolate Palestinian communities, hindering freedom of movement, access to services, and economic development.
International response
International actors, including some governments and rights bodies, have voiced deep concern over recent ‘Israeli’ settlement approvals and related planning decisions, saying they contravene international law and further erode prospects for peace.
Opponents argue the “Greater Jerusalem” plan cements a spatial reality in which Palestinians are confined to disconnected enclaves, effectively ending any meaningful possibility of a contiguous Palestinian territory under sovereign control.
Advocates of the project within ‘Israeli’ political circles assert that expanded municipal boundaries and settlement infrastructure strengthen security and demographic majority claims in and around Jerusalem, although critics say such gains come at the expense of Palestinian rights and territorial integrity.
