RAMALLAH -- Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Wednesday condemned what he called "the recent Israeli orders to confiscate more portions of Palestinian land between East Jerusalem and the Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Adumim in the West Bank."

Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia gestures during an interview with the AP at his office in the West Bank village of Abu Dis on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007. [Agencies]

In a statement sent to the press, Erekat warned that "recent Israeli actions are contemptuous and destructive to all efforts to revive the stalled Middle East peace process."

Israel issued on September 24 an order to confiscate more than 1, 100 dunums (more than 103 hectares) of Palestinian land in Abu Dis, Sawahreh, Nabi Mousa and al-Khan al-Ahmar in the Jerusalem Governorate.

Israel said the land will be used for the construction of an " alternate" road for Palestinians linking Bethlehem to eastern West Bank, which will roughly run parallel with the southern and eastern sections of the Adumim Wall outside the Adumim "bloc".  

Erekat denounced that "the road reinforces and facilitates Israel's settlement expansion east of East Jerusalem, particularly the massive E-1 Plan, and the isolation of Palestinian East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank."

He said that "it will serve to eventually prohibit Palestinians from using Road number 1 that passes through the E-1 area and the Adumim bloc, thus pushing Palestinian traffic further to the east and away from East Jerusalem.

Erekat described this recent Israeli move as "destructive to all the efforts led by the international community to revive the peace process and to realize the two-state solution by having a viable contiguous Palestinian state."