Israel has announced what is believed to be its largest seizure of Palestinian land in three decades. The Israeli government says it will take nearly 1,000 acres near Bethlehem to help expand one of its illegal West Bank settlements. Yariv Oppenheimer of the Israeli group Peace Now said the Israeli government is undermining any chances of a negotiated peace.

Yariv Oppenheimer: “This new declaration of expansion of settlement by the Israeli government is very significant. We don’t remember such a big announcement since the last one or two decades. This is a stab in the back of [Mahmoud] Abbas and the moderate people in the Palestinian Authority. Instead of strengthening the Palestinian Authority versus Hamas, Israel is showing its harder side and actually in a unilateral move expand settlement activity and destroy the chance for re-negotiation with the Palestinian Authority.”

The Israeli Cabinet voted last week to seize more Palestinian territory in response to the June kidnapping and murder of three settler teenagers in the West Bank.