Palestinian farmer defies Israeli settlement policy - 3Jun08

Since Annapolis, Israel has issued over 17,000 new tenders for housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians say this is a policy that destroys any prospect of peace and renders establishing a viable Palestinian state impossible.

Israel's Prime Minister is courting new controversy by approving the building of nearly 900 new homes in occupied East Jerusalem.

Many Palestinians are fighting to keep their land, and one farmer, Mohamed Elian, in Bethlehem has made it a life-time commitment from his cave.

For almost 4 decades, he has lived in a cave in his land in the village of Wad Fukeen to make sure his land is not lost to the expanding Israeli settlement nearby.

Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh visited Mohamed Elian and filed this report.