Land Use Planning in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's remark on 14 January 1990 that massive Soviet Jewish immigration would require a "big Israel" focused attention yet again on Israeli intentions in the occupied territories and revived the controversy surrounding settlements. But while settlement and land expropriations have always received some coverage in the Western press, the other ways in which Israel continues to extend its hold on the West Bank and Gaza go largely unnoticed. One of the most important of these is land use planning-taking control of the lands remaining in Palestinian hands to restrict development and as a prelude to further expropriations.

Rami Abdulhadi, a Ph.D. in engineering, is the founder and director of the Center for Engineering and Planning, a professional Palestinian institution active in the areas of physical, social, and economic development planning in the occupied territories.