Israel approves controversial E1 settlement plans in the West Bank

Israel has given the final approval of a controversial regulation project that would effectively cut the occupied West Bank of East Jerusalem and divide the territory into two.

Construction in the E1 zone has been frozen for two decades in a context of fierce international opposition. Critics warn that this would end the hopes of a viable and continuous Palestinian state.

On Wednesday, a committee of the Ministry of Defense approved the plans for 3,400 houses in E1. Far -right Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, who unveiled them last week, said the idea of a Palestinian state was “erased”.

The Palestinian authority condemned this decision, saying that it was illegal and “destroyed” the prospects for a two -state solution.

It follows the declarations of an increasing number of countries of their intention to recognize a Palestinian state, which Israel has denounced.

Israel has built around 160 colonies sheltering 700,000 Jews since he occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – Land Palestinians wish, with Gaza, for a hopeful future state – during the 1967 Middle East war. It is estimated that 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

The regulations are considered illegal under international law – a position supported by an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice last year – although Israel disputes it.

Successive Israeli governments have enabled the colonies to grow. However, the expansion increased sharply since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power at the end of 2022 at the head of a right-wing coalition and pro-settler, as well as the start of the Gaza war, triggered by the attack on October 7, 2023 of Hamas against Israel.

The plans of 3,401 housing units in E1 – which cover approximately 12 km2 (4.6 miles m²) between East Jerusalem and the Maale Adumim regulations – were approved by the higher planning council of the civil administration.

The organization of the Ministry of Defense also approved 342 units in the new colony of Asael, a former post of the West Bank in the south of the West Bank which was built without authorization from the government, but was judged legal under Israeli law in May.

Smotrich, an ultra -nationalist and colonist leader who oversees the civil administration, said: “The Palestinian state is erased from the table, not with slogans but with actions.”

“Each colony, each district, each accommodation is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea.”

He also urged Netanyahu to “finish the move” and to officially annex the West Bank.

Israel actually annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, in a decision not recognized by the vast majority of the international community.

Opponents of the E1 project warned that it would effectively block the establishment of a Palestinian State because it would cut northern Southern West Bank, and prevent development in the center of a contiguous Palestinian urban area connecting Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Israeli anti-settlement for the guard dog has now warned: “Under the cover of the war, Smotrich and its messianic minority build a settlement condemned to evacuation in any agreement. The only objective of E1 is to sabotage a political solution and to rush to a state of binational apartheid.”

The Palestinian authority, which governs parts of the West Bank not under complete Israeli control, also condemned the approval of the E1 plans.

“This plan will insulate Jerusalem of its Palestinian environment, will plunge it into blocks of massive colonies” and fragment the West Bank “in disconnected enclaves resembling prisons in the open air,” said the Department of Foreign Affairs of the AP.

He also alleged that approval constituted “an official Israeli involvement in the crimes of regulations, annexation, genocide and forced displacement” – accusations that Israel has long rejected.

The Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for “real international action, including sanctions, to force Israel to stop its colonial regimes (…) and to respect international consensus on the resolution of the Palestinian issue”.

British Foreign Minister David Lammy said that E1’s plans, if implemented, “would divide a Palestinian state in two, would mark a blatant violation of international law and critically undermine the solution to two states.”

“The Israeli government must reverse this decision,” he added.

King Abdullah II of Jordan also rejected the E1 plans, saying: “The two -state solution is the only way to reach a just and complete peace.”

A spokesperson for the German government said that the construction of regulation had violated international law and “hinders a negotiated solution to two states and the end of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank”.

There was no immediate comment from the United States.

However, when they were asked on Monday by the army of the army of Israel on the position of the Trump administration on the E1, the ambassador Mike Huckabee said: “Whether he should have a massive development in E1 is a decision for the government of Israel. We would therefore not try to assess the good or the evil of that.”

“As a rule, this is not a violation of international law. And it is also up to us to recognize that the Israelis have the right to live in Israel.”

The advisory opinion of July 2024 of the International Court of Justice said that the “continuous presence of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory was illegal” and that the country was “under the obligation to end its illegal presence … as quickly as possible”.

The Israeli Prime Minister declared at the time that the court had made a “decision of lies” and insisted that “the Jewish people were not occupants in their own country”.