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Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
Israeli Minister Strikes at Palestinian State With Move to Expand Key Settlement
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel would move ahead with a controversial settlement expansion near East Jerusalem that would isolate key Palestinian communities and significantly complicate prospects for a Palestinian state. Smotrich, who also oversees civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories via a separate post in the defense ministry, said construction plans have been approved for a project that 'finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state.'
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
Israel advances controversial settlement plan, aiming to ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state'
Israel is moving forward with controversial plans to build thousands of new housing units in the occupied West Bank, splitting the territory in two, a scheme far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said would 'permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state.' 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. 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. 'This reality is what will permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize.' Final approval for the plan is expected next week. Smotrich has repeatedly lobbied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the occupied West Bank and apply Israeli sovereignty to the entire territory. In a statement, the presidency of the Palestinian National Council blasted the new settlement plans 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. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law. But 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 new policy in place. Smotrich announced the advancement of the plan in the press conference on Thursday, presenting it as Israel's response to the recent wave of countries announcing their intention to recognize a Palestinian state. The Israeli settlement watchdog 'Peace Now' blasted the advancement of the E1 plan, deeming it '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.'
CBS News
3 hours ago
- CBS News
Israeli official says settlement construction he's OK'd in West Bank "finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state"
Israel's far-right finance minister announced approval Thursday of the construction of a contentious settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that Palestinians and rights groups worry would scuttle plans for a future Palestinian state by effectively cutting the West Bank into two separate parts. The announcement comes as several major U.S. allies have announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September. "This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize," said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. "Anyone in the world who tries today to recognize a Palestinian state - will receive an answer from us on the ground." Development in E1, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, has been under consideration for more than two decades, but was frozen due to U.S. pressure during previous administrations. On Thursday, Smotrich praised President Trump and U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee as "true friends of Israel as we have never had before." The E1 plan hasn't yet received its final approval, which is expected next week. The plan includes around 3,500 apartments to expand the settlement of Maale Adumim, Smotrich said. While some bureaucratic steps remain, if the process moves quickly, infrastructure work could begin in the next few months and construction of homes could start in around a year. Rights groups swiftly condemned the plan. Peace Now called it "deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution" that is "guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed." The Palestinian foreign ministry called the plan an extension of crimes of what it says are genocide, displacement and annexation, the Reuters news agency reports. Israel fiercely denies those characterizations. It wasn't immediately clear if Netanyahu backs the E1 plan, Reuters said. Smotrich's popularity has dropped in recent months, Reuters notes, with polls showing his party wouldn't win a single seat if parliamentary elections were held today.
