He then proceeded to suck whatever life had been breathed back into the peace process by immediately beginning construction at Jabal Abu Ghneim. In the past year and a half, with attention focused on Jabal Abu Ghneim, the Israelis have proceeded to implement a sophisticated plan for the rest of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. During the past five years construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem has, in fact, doubled. And coupled with this has been the rampant use of house demolitions that have created great fear among many Palestinians. The settlement and road construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem must be seen to be understood and believed.
Settlements are now huge and sprawling cities that have surrounded and engulfed East Jerusalem.
Having lost their surrounding lands and with new Jewish construction right up to their doorsteps-the tiny Palestinian villages in the environs of the city have been swallowed whole by stone behemoths that will house tens of thousands of new settlers. Where hills are not being razed for new housing construction, they are being cut through for massive superhighways. These new roads with their tunnels and overpasses accomplish two objectives. Most settlers can now take a new superhighway direct from their settlement to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv without ever crossing through an Arab village. The roads also cut the West Bank into ribbons so that the Arab areas are severed from one another.