MAALE ADUMIM, WEST BANK — This sprawling, well-manicured Israeli settlement -- with its rows of red-tile roofs, palm trees and air-conditioned shopping mall -- could almost pass for Orange County. Except the guards in this gated community sometimes pack automatic weapons.
Settlements such as the city-sized Maale Adumim, about four miles east of Jerusalem in the West Bank, are viewed by much of the world as illegal because they are built on land seized by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War. Many Israelis see Maale Adumim as part of their country.
Now the long-simmering dispute over this and other fast-growing settlements has become a major obstacle to restarting peace talks. Palestinians have refused to resume talks unless settlement growth is frozen, including so-called natural growth of existing settlements as families grow. Israelis have refused, despite pressure from the Obama administration, saying a complete freeze would unfairly disrupt the "normal life" of settlers. The issue has sparked the most public rift between the U.S. and Israel in years.
"Why is President Obama interfering with our lives, telling us how many children we can have and whether we can get married?" asked Benny Kashriel, longtime mayor of Maale Adumim.
Many of Israel's approximately 220 settlements and outposts have a reputation for being populated by ideologues and religious zealots who want to stake an Israeli land claim. However, much of the recent growth is occurring in a handful of large settlements, including Maale Adumim, which is home to 37,000 people and has become a de facto Jerusalem suburb. Settlers here are more likely to be secular families in search of affordable housing. Apartments in Maale Adumim cost one-third those in Jerusalem.
With its own municipal infrastructure, an industrial park and school system, Maale Adumim is larger in size than Manhattan. But even as its population has doubled over the last decade, the community has developed only one-fifth of its available land.
Talk about a possible freeze has many here worried.
"You can't freeze a city," Kashriel said. "If you freeze, you go backwards. Every month we are not building and people are not coming, it affects the economic situation of the city. . . . It's punishing."
A freeze, officials say, would threaten the opening of four new synagogues and seven sorely needed schools. Class sizes are already near the legal limit of 40 students per room.
