The Israeli Minister announces regulations “to thwart the Palestinian state”

The Israeli Minister for Far -Right Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, said that he would approve plans to build more than 3,000 houses in a controversial regulation project in the occupied West Bank – a decision which, according to him, will prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.

The so-called E1 project between Jerusalem and the colony of Maale Adumim has been frozen for decades in the midst of fierce opposition internationally. The building has actually cut the West Bank of East Jerusalem-East and considerably obstructs its territorial contiguity.

“The plan will bury the idea of a Palestinian state,” said Smotrich, according to Israeli media.

The regulations are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes it.

They are one of the most controversial problems between Israel and the Palestinians. About 700,000 settlers live in around 160 colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli anti-establishment group Peace Now-Palestinian Land are looking for a future independent state.

“After decades of international pressure and freezes, we break the Maale Adumim conventions and connections in Jerusalem,” said Smotrich.

“It is Zionism to its best – to build, settle and strengthen our sovereignty in the country of Israel.”

It follows the statements in recent days by an increasing number of countries of their intention to recognize a Palestinian state in the coming months, which Israel denounced.

Announcing the plan at a press conference with the president of the organization of the Yesha settlers, Israel Ganz, and the mayor of Maale Adumim, Guy Yifrach, Smotrich said that the earth had been given to the Jews by God.

When asked by the BBC what message the plans sent to Great Britain and France which plan to recognize a state of Palestine later this year, he said: “This will not happen. There will be no state to recognize.”

Peace has now said: “The government of Netanyahu operates every minute to deepen the annexation of the West Bank and prevents the possibility of a solution to two states.

“It is clear to everyone today that the only solution to the conflict, and the only way to defeat Hamas, is the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

“The government of Israel is condemning us to pursue blood effusions, instead of working to end it.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs qualified the new regulation plan “an extension of crimes as genocide, travel and annexation”.

Israel has long rejected these accusations, but the main Israeli human rights organizations have argued that the conduct of the country in the war in Gaza constitutes a genocide against the Palestinian population.

Smotrich, with the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in June for “repeated incentives of violence against the Palestinian communities” in occupied West Bank.

The construction of 3,401 housing units in the E1 zone has been frozen for 20 years. The development of the area has long been considered to be effectively blocking the establishment of a Palestinian State, due to its strategic position separating the areas south of Jerusalem from those in its north, preventing a contiguous Palestinian urban area connecting Ramallah, Jerusalem-Est and Bethlehem.

Since the attack on Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel’s pressure on the Palestinians of the West Bank has increased sharply, justified as legitimate security measures.

The vast majority of the international community considers the illegal colonies under international law – a position supported by an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year.