A/HRC/22/63 of Ma‘ale Adummim and its expansion has had a much wider significance than the local impact of most settlements by severing territorial continuity between Palestinian communities.20 The Wall ―where it is built or planned, truncates and chops up Palestinian space with ‗fingers‘ extending deep into the West Bank. (…) Its ―route threatens to divide the West Bank into two separate areas and cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank‖.21 35. The Government of Israel has full security and administrative control over the settlement areas, and effectively controls the external borders of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Regional councils composed exclusively of representatives of Israeli settlers exercise planning functions in settlement areas. Neither the Palestinian Authority nor local Palestinian communities have any control over the governance, administration and planning of these areas. 36. The settlements, including the associated restrictions, impede Palestinian access to and control over their natural resources. In his report, the Secretary-General noted that Palestinians had virtually no control over the water resources in the West Bank. 22 Eightysix per cent of the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea is under the de facto jurisdiction of the settlement regional councils. Settlements exploit mineral extraction and fertile agricultural lands, denying Palestinians access to their natural resources. 37. In December 2012, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that, while the fenced areas of settlements cover only 3 per cent of the West Bank, in reality 43 per cent of the territory is allocated to local and regional settlement councils. 23 There are approximately 150,000 Palestinians living in Area C in close proximity to more than 320,000 Israeli settlers. In East Jerusalem, some 200,000 settlers have been introduced into Palestinian areas with a Palestinian population of about 390,000. The negative impact of Israeli settlements on the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people extends, however, to the Palestinian people as a whole. 38. The mission considers that the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, including the right to determine how to implement self-determination, the right to have a demographic and territorial presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the right to permanent sovereignty over natural resources, is clearly being violated by Israel through the existence and ongoing expansion of the settlements. The transfer of Israeli citizens into the Occupied Palestinian Territory, prohibited under international humanitarian law and international criminal law, is a central feature of the practices and policies of Israel. 20 21 22 23 ―The Hidden Agenda: The Establishment and Expansion Plans of Ma‘ale Adummim and their Human Rights Ramifications‖, B‘Tselem, December 2009, available from www.btselem.org/download/200912_maale_adummim_eng.pdf. See ―Arrested Development: the Long Term Impact of Israel‘s Separation Barrier in the West Bank‖, October 2012 (available from http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/201210_arrested_development_eng.pdf), and ―By Hook and by Crook: Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank‖, B‘Tselem, July 2010 (available from www.btselem.org/download/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook_eng.pdf). A/67/375, para. 14. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ―The Humanitarian Impact of Israeli Settlement Policies‖ (see footnote15). 9