Jerusalem
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Israel has given final approval to a controversial plan to build thousands of new housing units in the occupied West Bank that effectively cuts the territory in two.
Plans for settlement in E1, an area east of Jerusalem, had been frozen for decades in the face of international opposition, since it would make a contiguous Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem virtually impossible.
But confirming the scheme, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made it clear that was his goal, saying in a statement, “The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans, but with actions.”
He had presented the move as Israel’s response to the recent wave of countries announcing their intention to recognize a Palestinian state. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has categorically rejected any prospect of Palestinian statehood, a position reinforced in a resolution passed by the Israeli Knesset last year.
Smotrich has repeatedly lobbied Netanyahu to annex the occupied West Bank and apply Israeli sovereignty to the entire territory.
What are the settlements and why are they so sensitive?
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are Jewish villages, towns, and cities built on land the United Nations and the international community have designated for a Palestinian state.
Virtually the entire international community views the expansion of settlements as an obstacle to negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. According to Peace Now, an organization that tracks the growth of the settlement enterprise, there were 141 settlements in the West Bank as of last year.
The E1 settlement project, frozen for decades because of vociferous international opposition, would connect Jerusalem to the settlement of Maale Adumim, making a future Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem virtually impossible. It would also split the West Bank in half, preventing the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state.
Last week, Smotrich announced the pending approval of 3,401 new housing units on Thursday in a press conference held on the site of the planned construction.
“They will talk about a Palestinian dream, and we will continue to build a Jewish reality,” Smotrich said last Thursday. “This reality is what will permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize.”
Yisrael Gantz, head of the Yesha Council, which advocates for Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the occupied Golan Heights and Gaza, celebrated the plans.
“We are on a historic morning that brings us one additional step closer to the vision of sovereignty,” Gantz said. “We are exercising our historical right to the land of our ancestors.”
The presidency of the Palestinian National Council blasted the advancement of the project, describing it in a statement as a “systemic plan to steal land, Judaize it, and impose biblical and Talmudic facts on the conflict.”
Speaker Rawhi Fattouh said the “colonial plan falls within the policy of creeping annexation” of the West Bank, which is accompanied by settler violence against Palestinians.
The Israeli settlement watchdog “Peace Now” was also scathing, deeming the plan “deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution.”
In a statement, it said, “We are standing at the edge of an abyss, and the government is driving us forward at full speed. There is a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to the terrible war in Gaza – the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel – and it will ultimately come. The government’s annexation moves are taking us further away from this solution and guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed.”
Ir Amim, an Israeli organization that monitors developments in and around Jerusalem, warned that Jewish settlements of E1 would permanently entrench Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, creating an “Apartheid reality.” It would also cause a “rapid and severe deterioration” in economic and social conditions for Palestinians that would lead to greater instability and violence.
British foreign minister David Lammy said the UK “strongly opposes” the plans, which he described as “a flagrant breach of international law.”
“The plans must be stopped now,” Lammy said in a statement Thursday.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, also urged Israel to halt, saying the plan “further undermines the two-state solution.”
The settlement policy, combined with settler violence and military operations, was “fueling an already tense situation on the ground and further eroding any possibility for peace,” Kallas said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the US State Department did not denounce the plans to build new settlement housing as part of E1. Instead, a spokesperson for the department instead stressed the need for stability in the West Bank.
The spokesperson also referred CNN to the Israeli government for more information.
“A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region,” the spokesperson said.
“We remain focused on ending the war in Gaza and ensuring Hamas will never govern Gaza again, freeing the hostages, including the remains of two Americans, and facilitating the delivery of critically needed humanitarian assistance,” the spokesperson said.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law. The United Nations reinforced that designation in 2016 with Security Council resolution 2334, which declared that Jewish settlements in occupied territory are a “flagrant violation” of international law and have “no legal validity.”
But that resolution, and many others going back decades, have done little to stop Israel’s expanding settlement enterprise, which has grown rapidly under US President Donald Trump. During the first Trump administration, the State Department reversed longstanding US policy and ruled settlements were “not inconsistent” with international law. The Biden administration left this policy in place.
Following the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, its government has dramatically accelerated the growth of settlements.
In May, Israel approved the largest expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank since the signing of the Oslo Accords more than 30 years ago. The security cabinet said it would establish 22 new settlements, including some deep within the West Bank and in areas from which the country had previously withdrawn. A spokesman for the Palestinian Authority denounced the plan as a “dangerous escalation and a challenge to international legitimacy and international law.”
