All settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories are considered illegal under international law. But the planned expansion of Ma’ale Adumim is especially controversial, not least because the Israeli government has boasted it will bury the idea of a Palestinian state — as countries including Canada prepare to recognize one at the United Nations General Assembly next week.

“It is a retaliation, in a way, to the announcement by Canada and other Western states,” Palestinian lawyer Hiba Husseini said in an interview at her law offices in Ramallah, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“[It] sends a strong message to the West: ‘If you recognize the State of Palestine, it’s really irrelevant for us on the ground. We do whatever we want to do because we control this entire land.’”