In Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Israeli military has ordered the seizure of vast new swaths of Palestinian land in the West Bank. The land surrounds four Palestinian villages outside East Jerusalem. The move appears aimed at expanding the Israeli settlement of Maleh Adumin — already Israel’s largest in the West Bank. The Israeli military says the seized land would be used for a planned Palestinian road between Jericho and Jerusalem. But critics say that will allow Israel to carry out the planned expansion of an area known as E-1, where the current road runs. The confiscation comes as Palestinian and Israeli officials continue to meet ahead of a planned U.S.-brokered meeting next month. The Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper said: “This has to be seen as part of a timeline in which Israel wants to get all its development of the West Bank finished before [President] Bush leaves office.”