"Approximately 40 percent of the West Bank is consumed by Israeli settlements and related infrastructure, including inter alia a separate road network for Israeli settler use and the Wall.¹ The effect of this infrastructure, along with the system of control over Palestinian movement within the West Bank, fragments and separates Palestinian communities from each other, dissects the West Bank into dozens of enclaves and denies the emergence of an economically and politically viable Palestinian state.² "

"Today, there are approximately 450,000 Israeli citizens living in 149 settlements, nine industrial zone settlements and numerous settler outposts throughout the occupied West Bank including occupied East Jerusalem.³ The majority of Israeli settlers have chosen to reside in the West Bank due to lower costs of living subsidized largely by the Israeli government. A much smaller number are ideologically motivated who consider it their duty to settle the West Bank as part of the 'land of Israel.' The rate of population growth within settlements is three to four times greater than the rate of growth within Israel.⁴"

"Settlements
Article 49 (6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the establishment of settlements in occupied territory. It stipulates 'The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.' The U.N. Security Council and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have affirmed that Israel is bound to comply with the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and that the establishment of settlements in the territory it occupied in 1967 constitutes a violation of Article 49 (6).²⁵ This includes settlements situated within occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The establishment of settlements also constitutes a war crime under the International Criminal Court. Israeli military orders and Israeli domestic law, which provides for and regulates the establishment of settlements, are in contravention of international law. Settlement-related acts, such as land expropriation to construct roads for its settler population or for erecting fences around settlements, are ipso facto illegal. "

Read the complete article from The Jerusalem Fund:
http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/2237