Lauren should start his own mega thread.
Earlier in the year Netanyahu said on camera Israel would continue to expand settlements in the west bank as Israel saw fit to do.
If you are denying Israeli taking Palestinian land you are ignoring established Israeli policy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier
'…According to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, 8.5% of the West Bank area will after completion be on the Israeli side of the barrier
….severely restricts Palestinians who live nearby, particularly their ability to travel freely within the West Bank, including to and from the lands on which their subsistence depends,[12] and to access work in Israel.[13] In a 2004 advisory opinion resulting from a Palestinian-initiated U.N. resolution, the International Court of Justice considered that "Israel cannot rely on a right of self-defence or on a state of necessity in order to preclude the wrongfulness of the construction of the wall". The Court asserted that "the construction of the wall, and its associated régime, are contrary to international law...Parts of the barrier are built on land seized from Palestinians,[62][67] or between Palestinians and their lands[68] In a 2009 report, the UN said that the most recent barrier route allocates more segments to be built on the Green Line itself compared to previous draft routes of the barrier. However, in its current route the barrier is annexing 9.5% of the total area of the West Bank to the Israeli side of the barrier.[69]
In early 2003, 63 shops straddling the Green Line were demolished by the IDF during construction of the wall in the village of Nazlat Issa.[70][71] In August 2003, an additional 115 shops and stalls (an important source of income for several communities) and five to seven homes there were also demolished.[72][73]
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), 15 communities were to be directly affected, numbering approximately 138,593 Palestinians, including 13,450 refugee families, or 67,250 individuals. In addition to loss of land, in the city of Qalqilyah one-third of the city's water wells lie on the other side of the barrier. The Israeli Supreme Court says the Israeli government's rejection of accusations of a de facto annexation of these wells, stating that "the construction of the fence does not affect the implementation of the water agreements determined in the (interim) agreement".[2]
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) estimates that in the north of the West Bank approximately 80 per cent of Palestinians who own land on the other side of the barrier have not received permits from the Israeli authorities, and hence cannot cultivate their fields.[74]
Israel has built a barrier in the Jordan Valley near the Jordan border. Because of international condemnation after the 2004 International Court ruling Israel did not build an even stronger barrier, instead instituting a restrictive permit regime for Palestinians.[75] However, it has changed the route to allow settlements to annex parcels of land.[76] The existing barrier cuts off access to the Jordan River for Palestinian farmers in the West Bank.[77] Israeli settlement councils already have defacto control of 86 percent of the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea[78] as the settler population steadily grows there.[79] In 2013, Ehud Barak, Israeli Defense Minister at the time, proposed that Israel should consider unilateral disengagement from the West Bank and the dismantling of settlements beyond the separation barrier, but maintain a military presence in the Jordan Valley along the West Bank-Jordan border.[80]...'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement
'...In July 2012, according to the Israeli interior ministry, 350,150 Jewish settlers lived in the 121 officially recognised settlements in the West Bank, 300,000 Israelis lived in settlements in East Jerusalem and over 20,000 lived in settlements in the Golan Heights.[26][27] Settlements range in character from farming communities and frontier villages to urban suburbs and neighborhoods. The four largest settlements, Modi'in Illit, Ma'ale Adumim, Beitar Illit and Ariel, have achieved city status. Ariel has 18,000 residents while the rest have around 37,000 to 55,500 each...'
