Protesters against Israeli settlements struggle to make Obama hear Munther Amira ... Obama's previous message to Israel on settlements was ignored. AFHAD YOUNIS: On a rocky hill overlooking the large Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, as sheep grazed along the grassy shoulders of the highway that leads into Jerusalem, a large Palestinian flag unfurled in the spring breeze. It is a part of East Jerusalem that President Barack Obama is unlikely to see but it is at the heart of the next phase of Israel's settlement construction that, if completed, would cut off Jerusalem from the West Bank and make a contiguous Palestinian state an impossibility. Peace must be based on security for Palestine and security for Israel - not just security for Israel. Munther Amira It has also become a hub for the latest in a series of non-violent demonstrations - the erection of a series of protest villages on private Palestinian land - designed to raise awareness of the threat of settlements to a Palestinian state. "Obama you promised us hope and change, you gave us colonies and apartheid," reads one of the banners at the new village, known as Afhad Younis. As the US President's Marine One helicopter touched down at the Mukata compound in Ramallah for his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the 100 or so residents of the protest camp ate a breakfast of bread and felafel and warmed themselves in the morning sun. "We are here to liberate our own land, not settle it," said one of the protest organisers, Munther Amira from Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem. We came here because of the visit of Mr Obama to send a message to the world - we are here seeking peace, freedom, equality, it is a humanitarian message not just a political message. Palestinians were frustrated by the attitude of the United States, who they say stood by while Israel took more and more occupied Palestinian land to build settlements, which are illegal under international law. Four years ago Mr Obama sent a message to Israel to stop the settlements and they did not. We want the US government to be balanced between Palestine and Israel - and if you want peace the first thing they have to do is stop the settlements," Mr Amira said. Following his meeting with Mr Obama, Mr Abbas reiterated the Palestinian desire for a settlement freeze before any peace talks - frozen since 2010 - could be resumed. "It is not only our perception that settlements are illegal, but it is a global perspective," Mr Abbas said, noting that the UN Security Council had issued more than 13 resolutions condemning settlements and demanding their removal. "We are asking for nothing outside the framework of international legitimacy," he said. Established on Wednesday just before Mr Obama arrived for his three-day visit to Israel and Palestine, the protest village has been declared a closed military zone by the Israeli Defence Force, even though it is on privately owned Palestinian land. The army has previously evicted protesters and demolished other protest villages, such as Bab al-Shams, built on a neighbouring hill. Mr Amira expected that once Mr Obama left for Jordan on Friday afternoon the military would force the protesters to leave. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in December that Israel would go ahead with the construction of thousands of new units in the area in retaliation for the successful bid to upgrade Palestine's status in the United Nations, he was roundly condemned by countries Israel considers allies. Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark and Italy, as well as Australia, summoned Israeli ambassadors to express their grave concerns about the move. At the time, Australia's foreign minister Bob Carr said: "Australia has long opposed all settlement activity. Such activity threatens the viability of a two-state solution without which there will never be security in Israel. Israel's reported decision to unfreeze planning of the area known as E1 is especially counter-productive. Yet Palestinians have little faith in international condemnation. It so often comes without any penalty, they say, that it's difficult to take it seriously. That was why non-violent protests such as the establishment of the village of Afhad Younis were so important, Mr Amira said. It is my way to resist the occupation.