Israel has initiated a new phase of tenders for the construction of 1,234 Israeli homes in the occupied West Bank, marking a significant escalation of settlement expansion and fueling concerns within the international community regarding its potential impact on the region. This move, detailed in reports by Al Jazeera, is part of Israel’s broader strategy to create the ‘E1’ area – a continuous Israeli settlement corridor – between the occupied East Jerusalem and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, effectively severing Palestinian territory in two. The initiative originated under Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in 1991 and was advanced by Yitzhak Rabin in 1994, but residential construction has repeatedly been halted amid international pressure, largely due to concerns about disrupting Palestinian movement and isolating communities on both sides. The United Nations Human Rights Office has previously described the E1 project as a ‘grave and unlawful step to consolidate annexation’, while the UN secretary-general has stated that settlement construction there violates international law and runs directly counter to UN resolutions. Israel again postponed advancing E1 in 2022 following US pressure, reflecting a continued shift in the political landscape. The US President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, beginning in January 2025, has provided a more favorable environment for settlement expansion, according to analysts. This renewed focus on expansion has accelerated under Netanyahu’s government, which relies heavily on far-right parties advocating for settlement expansion. The Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, overseeing the Settlement Administration, has explicitly linked construction of E1 to the prevention of Palestinian statehood. When plans were advanced in 2025, he said their approval ‘buries the idea of a Palestinian state’, while repeatedly describing his broader West Bank policies as a push towards Israeli sovereignty over the territory, which the Israeli government officially refers to as ‘Judea and Samaria’. Israel began preliminary infrastructure work for E1 in 2004 and later built roads and a police headquarters there, but plans for thousands of homes remained on hold as successive US and European governments warned that construction would threaten the territorial integrity of a future Palestinian state. Israel again postponed advancing E1 in 2022 following US pressure. US President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, which began in January 2025, has, however, provided Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government with a more favorable political environment for settlement expansion, as the government has a strong mandate to continue the expansion. E1 has been revived as part of a wider expansion of Israeli control over the occupied West Bank that has accelerated under Netanyahu’s government, which relies heavily on far-right parties that favor settlement expansion. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as an additional minister within the Defence Ministry, oversees the Settlement Administration, which has extensive powers over land, planning, and settlement development in the occupied West Bank. Smotrich, living in an illegal settlement on Palestinian land himself, has explicitly linked construction of E1 to the prevention of Palestinian statehood. When plans were advanced in 2025, he said their approval “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”, while repeatedly describing his wider West Bank policies as a push towards Israeli sovereignty over the territory, which the Israeli government officially refers to as “Judea and Samaria”. The latest tender, opened by Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing, covers 1,234 homes under one of two construction plans approved for E1. E1 lies immediately east of occupied East Jerusalem and the illegal Ma’ale Adumim settlement. Israel plans to expand Ma’ale Adumim into E1 with 3,400 settlement homes on about 12 square kilometres (4.6 square miles) of Palestinian land there. The wider development also envisages hotels and roads linking the settlement more quickly to Jerusalem. The latest tender has also been opened while a legal challenge remains before the Jerusalem District Court, according to Israeli NGO Ir Amim. It said a petition brought on behalf of Palestinian residents, along with Ir Amim, Peace Now and Bimkom remains pending, with the court ordering the Israeli state in June to submit a detailed response by September 1. Ir Amim said the government had committed to notifying petitioners before tenders were opened but had failed to do so, saying the decision to proceed while the case remains before the court raises “grave concerns about respect for the ongoing judicial process and highlights the state’s resolve to expedite the process ahead of Israel’s upcoming elections”. The latest move has prompted joint condemnation from the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Norway. “The Israeli Government’s decision to publish construction tenders for the E1 settlement project is unacceptable,” they said. The governments warned that E1 would “undermine the prospect of the two-state solution by driving a wedge through the West Bank and harming the territorial contiguity of the Palestinian Territories”. They called on Israel to withdraw the plans immediately and took the unusual step of directly warning companies against participating, warning of potential “legal and reputational consequences including the risk of involving themselves in serious breaches of international law”. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband also announced the UK had summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires and demanded that the tenders be reversed. Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responded by attacking the British government. “Someone should update Ed that the British Mandate for the Land of Israel” he wrote on X. Despite repeated statements opposing settlement expansion, Palestinian advocates and rights groups say Israel has faced few meaningful consequences for continuing to change realities on the ground in the West Bank. The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians has called on the British government to impose an immediate trade embargo on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. A coalition of five groups, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, has similarly called for the UK to ban settlement trade and impose further sanctions on Israel. They said the Israeli Government’s decision to publish construction tenders for the E1 settlement project is unacceptable. The governments warned that E1 would “undermine the prospect of the two-state solution by driving a wedge through the West Bank and harming the territorial contiguity of the Palestinian Territories”. Co-director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, Ines Abdel Razek, told Al Jazeera that international warnings about the threat to a two-state solution obscured a much deeper failure to act. “The ‘prospect of a two-state solution’ is little more than diplomatic rhetoric used to cover deliberate inaction and complicity in the decades-long dispossession of Palestinians,” she said. “The Israeli colonial regime has wiped out Gaza, destroyed its schools, universities, hospitals and agricultural land, and rendered two million people displaced and homeless, while continuing its decades-long annexation virtually without interruption. How has that not already killed the two-state solution?” she said, “The international community has perfected its performance of outrage-crying wolf instead of sanctioning and cutting ties with Israel, thereby further emboldening Israel and entrenching its impunity. We have no illusion that today will be any different.” The International Court of Justice for Palestinians has called on the British Mandate for the Land of Israel to be ‘acknowledged’ by Israel, as it is the foundation for the legal basis for the occupation. “The international community has perfected its performance of outrage-crying wolf instead of sanctioning and cutting ties with Israel, thereby further emboldening Israel and entrenching its impunity. We have no illusion that today will be any different,” she said, “The Israeli colonial regime has wiped out Gaza, destroyed its schools, universities, hospitals and agricultural land, and rendered two million people displaced and homeless, while continuing its decades-long annexation virtually without interruption. How has that not already killed the two-state solution?” she said, “The international community has perfected its performance of outrage-crying wolf instead of sanctioning and cutting ties with Israel, thereby further emboldening Israel and entrenching its impunity. We have no illusion that today will be any different.” The Israeli colonial regime has wiped out Gaza, destroyed its schools, universities, hospitals and agricultural land, and rendered two million people displaced and homeless, while continuing its decades-long annexation of the West Bank virtually without interruption. How has that not already killed the two-state solution? “The international community has perfected its performance of outrage-crying wolf instead of sanctioning and cutting ties with Israel, thereby further emboldening Israel and entrenching its impunity. We have no illusion that today will be any different.” Co-director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, Ines Abdel Razek, told Al Jazeera that international warnings about the threat to a two-state solution obscured a much deeper failure to act. “The ‘prospect of a two-state solution’ is little more than diplomatic rhetoric used to cover deliberate inaction and complicity in the decades-long dispossession of Palestinians,” she said, “The Israeli colonial regime has wiped out Gaza, destroyed its schools, universities, hospitals and agricultural land, and rendered two million people displaced and homeless, while continuing its decades-long annexation virtually without interruption. How has that not already killed the two-state solution?” she said, “The international community has perfected its performance of outrage-crying wolf instead of sanctioning and cutting ties with Israel, thereby further emboldening Israel and entrenching its impunity. We have no illusion that today will be any different.” The Israeli colonial regime has wiped out Gaza, destroyed its schools, universities, hospitals and agricultural land, and rendered two million people displaced and homeless, while continuing its decades-long annexation of the West Bank virtually without interruption. How has that not already killed the two-state solution? The International Court of Justice for Palestinians has called on the British government to impose an immediate trade embargo on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The governments have warned that E1 would
Source: Al Jazeera
