JERUSALEM (JTA) — The West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim was slated to be annexed to Jerusalem even before it was built, according to newly revealed documents.
In a new report published Wednesday, Israeli human rights organizations Bimkom and B’Tselem present documents recently released by Israel’s National Archives that show that the government planned in the early 1970s to annex the land, including the controversial E1 area, to become part of Jerusalem.
The report shows how, in the original map drawn up in 1975, the site where the residential neighborhoods of Ma’ale Adumim were subsequently established had been designated for the construction of a civilian settlement meant as a Jerusalem suburb. The size of the designated territory was seven times larger than required for the industrial zone, the original Ma’ale Adumim, according to the report.
The report also says the documents show that hundreds of Bedouin were relocated in order to construct the town.
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