Israel approves controversial plans for E1 settlement in the west coast

Israel has given final approval for a controversial settlement project that will effectively tear off the occupied West Bank from East Jerusalem and divide the territory into two.

Construction in the E1 area has been frozen for two decades against the background of fierce international opposition. Critics warn that this will end the hopes of a viable, neighboring Palestinian state.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense Committee approved plans for 3400 homes in E1. The Minister of Fast Right Finance Damalen Smotrich, who revealed them last week, said the idea of a Palestinian state had been “deleted”.

The Palestinian power has condemned this move, saying it was illegal and “destroy” the prospects for the decision of two countries.

The following is declarations from an increasingly large number of countries than their intention to recognize a Palestinian state, which Israel condemned.

Israel has built about 160 settlements that live in 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Coast and the East Jerusalem – the landed Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for the hope of a future country – during the Middle East war in 1967. Approximately 3.3 million Palestinians live with them.

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

The consistent Israeli governments allowed the settlements to grow. However, the expansion increased dramatically after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022. The right of the right, a pro-fitler coalition, and the beginning of the Gaza war caused by the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel.

The plans for 3.401 residential units in E1 – which cover about 12 square km (4.6 square miles) between East Jerusalem and the village of Maale Adumim – were approved by the Council for the Planning of the Civil Administration.

The Authority of the Ministry of Defense also approved 342 units in the new settlement of Asael, a former advance of the southern west coast, which was built without government permit but was legal under Israeli law in May.

Smoth, an ultra -nationalist leader and settler, who heads the civil administration, said: “The Palestinian state is deleted from the table, not with slogans, but with actions.”

“Every village, every neighborhood, every residential unit is another nail in the ark of this dangerous idea.”

He also called on Netanyahu to “finish this move” and officially annex the West Bank.

Israel effectively annexed Eastern Jerusalem in 1980, underway, which was not recognized by the greater part of the international community.

Opponents of the E1 project have warned that it will effectively block the creation of a Palestinian state because it will cut north from the west coast from the south and prevent the development in the center of a neighboring Palestinian urban area connecting Ramala, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The Israeli Peace to Combat the Agreement Guardian has now warned: “Under the guise of the war, I have fennel and his Messianic minority are building an agreement doomed to evacuate in every agreement. The sole purpose of the E1 is to sabotage a political decision and to rush to a bincing state of apartheid.”

The Palestinian Administration, which runs parts of the West coast that are not under complete Israeli control, also condemned the approval of the plans E1.

“This plan will isolate Jerusalem from its Palestinian environment, immerse it in massive settlement blocks,” and fragmented the West Coast, “in divided enclaves that resemble outdoor prisons,” the BCP Foreign Ministry said.

He is also claimed that approval is “the official involvement of Israeli Israeli in the crimes of settlement, annexation, genocide and forcible displacement” – accusations that Israel has long rejected.

The BCP Foreign Ministry appealed “True International Actions, including sanctions, to force Israel to stop its colonial schemes (…) and to observe the international consensus for resolving the Palestinian question.”

The United Kingdom Foreign Minister David Lamie said the plans of E1, if applied, “will divide the Palestinian state into two, will mark a gross violation of international law and critically undermine the decision of two countries.”

“The Israeli government has to turn this decision,” he added.

King Abdullah II of Jordan also rejected E1 plans, saying, “The decision of two countries is the only way to achieve a fair and exhaustive peace.”

A spokesman for the German government said the settlement construction violated international law and “interferes with the agreed decision for two countries and the termination of the Israeli occupation on the west coast.”

There was no immediate comment from the United States.

However, when asked by Israel’s Army Radio on Monday about the position of the Trump administration regarding E1, Ambassador Mike Hukabi said: “Whether there should be mass development in E1, it is a decision for the Israel government to take. So we would not try to appreciate the good or bad.”

“As a general rule, this is not a violation of international law. And it is obligatory for us all to admit that the Israelis have the right to live in Israel.”

The advice of July 2024 by the International Court of Justice said that “Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal” and that the country is “under the obligation to terminate its illegal presence … as quickly as possible”.

At that time, Israel’s Prime Minister stated that the court had made a “Decision of Lies” and insisted that “the Jewish people were not a inhabitants in their own land.”