JERUSALEM, Aug 20 — A widely condemned Israeli settlement plan, which would cut across land that Palestine seeks for a state, received final approval today, according to a statement from a Zionist regime minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The approval of the E1 project, which would bisect the occupied West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, was announced last week by Smotrich and received final go-ahead from a defence ministry planning commission today.
Restarting the project could further isolate Israel, which has watched some Western allies frustrated by its continuation and planned escalation of the Gaza war announce they may recognise Palestine’s statehood at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
“With E1, we are delivering finally on what has been promised for years,” Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist in the ruling right-wing coalition, said in a statement. “The Palestinian state is being erased from the table, not with slogans but with actions.”
Palestine’s Foreign Ministry condemned the announcement today, saying that the E1 settlement would isolate Palestinian communities living in the area and undermines the possibility of a two-state solution.
A German government spokesperson commenting on the announcement told reporters today that settlement construction violates international law and “hinders a negotiated two-state solution and an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank”.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not commented on the E1 announcement.
However on Sunday, during a visit to Ofra, another West Bank settlement established a quarter of a century ago, he made broader comments, saying: “I said 25 years ago that we will do everything to secure our grip on the Land of Israel, to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, to prevent the attempts to uproot us from here. Thank God, what I promised, we have delivered.”
The two-state solution to the decades-old Israel occupation envisages a Palestine state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, existing side-by-side with Israel.
Western capitals and campaign groups have opposed the settlement project due to concerns that it could undermine a future peace deal with Palestine.
The plan for E1, located adjacent to Maale Adumim and frozen in 2012 and 2020 amid objections from the United States and European governments, involves construction of about 3,400 new housing units.
Infrastructure work could begin within a few months, and house building in about a year, according to Israeli advocacy group Peace Now, which tracks settlement activity in the West Bank.
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in Palestine’s West Bank illegal under international law.
Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area and saying the settlements provide strategic depth and security.
