Israel Approves New Illegal Settlement Plan to Split West Bank

Featured image: Palestinian hamlets are seen at the E1 area, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, between the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim and the occupied West Bank town of Eizariya, on Aug. 14. . Source: Nasser Nasser/AP

The State of Israel has approved recently a major plan, under the command of the Defense Ministry. The so-called “E1 project”, includes the building of more than 3,400 settler homes between Jerusalem and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement in the occupied West Bank, in an area of land around 4.6 square miles. The project aims to split the occupied West Bank into two parts, cutting off the northern cities of Ramallah and Nablus from Bethlehem and Hebron in the south, and isolating East Jerusalem.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who was himself a former settler leader, also hailed the approval. The building of 350 homes for the settlement of Ashael near Hebron has been also approved. Smotrich praised U.S. President Donald Trump and Ambassador Mike Huckabee, calling them “men of truth”.

The construction of these Israeli settlements was planned for decades but until now was not approved. Mondoweiss reports that the E1 area contains enclaves of privately owned Palestinian land totaling about 77.5 hectares. To implement the E1 project, Palestinians living around Ma’ale Adumim would be displaced once again, after having already been expelled from their original homes in Tel Arad in the Naqab Desert.

Israel has built at least 710 settlements and military outposts in the occupied West Bank, an average of one settlement every 8 square kilometers (3 square miles), since 1967. Several international organisms, such as the United Nations, as well as the International Court of Justice, stated clearly that the continued settlement expansions is illegal under international law.