Israel land expropriation plan angers Palestinians

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has angered Palestinians with a plan to expropriate plots of West Bank land between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea including areas exposed by the lake's receding water levels.

A spokesman for Israel's Civil Administration Authority, an arm of the Defense Ministry, said Monday it advertised in the Jerusalem-based al-Quds newspaper Friday. Palestinians who object to the move were invited to file appeals within 45 days.

"The land in question includes a strip along the shores of the Dead Sea that emerged over the years as the water receded due to shrinkage," the spokesman said.

Palestinians have been lobbying Washington to pressure Israel to halt land seizures and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

"This would be the largest area of land ever confiscated by Israel in one go since 1967. We will appeal against this decision," said Hatem Abdel-Qader, Palestinian Authority Minister for Jerusalem Affairs.

According to the ads, the land to be expropriated totals 139 sq kms (54 sq miles). It includes plots of land near the settlement of Maale Adumim, the spokesman said, without giving further details.

Maale Adumim is the largest settlement in the West Bank and one of three blocs that Israel wants to keep under any future peace deal with Palestinians.

Israel is trying to reach a deal with Washington on West Bank settlement activity, which President Barack Obama wants completely stopped. The Palestinians have said resuming stalled peace talks with Israel hinges on halting settlement building.

BUILDING SETTLEMENTS

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would not allow the building of new settlements but would allow construction in existing communities, under what Israel calls "natural growth."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak meets Obama's special Middle East envoy George Mitchell Tuesday in New York in a bid to bridge differences with Washington over settlements. The West Bank was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

In an apparent attempt to reduce friction with Washington, Netanyahu endorsed in a speech this month the establishment of a Palestinian state, but said it should be demilitarized and would have limited sovereignty. Palestinians rejected his terms.

The World Bank says the Dead Sea water level fell from 394 meters below sea level in the 1960s to 420 meters as of mid-2007. The water surface area is down by a third, from 950 square kilometers to 637, about the size of Lake Geneva.

Large sections of the Dead Sea shore are soft terrain, pock-marked with dangerous sinkholes created by salt evaporation. But the spokesman said some of land slated for expropriation was fit for construction purposes.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says Israeli settlements would chop a future Palestinian state into separate cantons. He wants them removed so that the Palestinians have a viable state with territorial contiguity.

Israel says settlements are no obstacle to peace, which it says can be achieved only when Abbas regains control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas Islamists seized the enclave in 2007 after routing Fatah forces loyal to the Palestinian president.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi and Erika Solomon in Ramallah; Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Robert Woodward)