posted November 21, 2006 10:46 PM              

By VOA News
21 November 2006

An Israeli advocacy group says 40 percent of West Bank settlements have been built on private Palestinian land and are therefore illegal.

Peace Now says it based the assessment on a review of an Israeli government database. It says their study shows the property rights of many Palestinians have been violated by settlement building.

The group says the data shows that two prominent settlements Israel has said it plans to keep in any final border agreement with the Palestinians are built largely on private lands. It says the Jerusalem suburb Maale Adumim is built on 86 percent private land and Ariel's land is 35 percent private.

Peace Now is an Israeli group that advocates a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.