New West Bank settlement will ‘bury idea of Palestinian state'
About 3,300 homes would built between Jerusalem and the Jordan border under the plans announced on Thursday, in direct response to British and French plans to recognise an independent Palestine.
Critics fear the 'E1' project will effectively cut the West Bank in two, preventing a contiguous body of land that could form the basis of a viable Palestinian state.
The plan was first envisaged decades ago but has been on ice mainly because of international pressure, including, most recently, from the Biden administration.
However, key Israeli cabinet posts are now filled by religious ultra-nationalists from West Bank communities who have long called for accelerated Jewish settlement of the areas, plus legal annexation by the state of Israel.
One of them, Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, announced on Thursday that he plans to approve tenders for thousands homes around the town of Ma'ale Adumim.
'Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan that we began implementing with the establishment of the government,' he said.
This follows a decision by the Security Cabinet in March to build a separate road system in the area that is feared will effectively cut off the central West Bank to Palestinians.
Mr Smotrich, who also holds a ministerial position in the defence ministry relating to West Bank matters, said Benjamin Netanyahu supported the plans.
He added: 'We will make sure that by September, the hypocritical leaders in Europe will have nothing to recognise.'
Israeli ministers had warned it could unilaterally annex the West Bank in retaliation for Western recognition of Palestine outside a broader peace agreement.
Both Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have promised to recognise an independent Palestinian state at the September General Assembly meeting of the UN.
Mr Macron's declaration was unconditional, whereas Sir Keir's promise of recognition is conditional on Israel failing to take de-escalate the situation in both Gaza and the West Bank, which is very unlikely to happen.
Israel branded recognition for Palestine as a 'reward for terrorism'.
The Telegraph understands that British and other European diplomats in Jerusalem had advised their governments that, because of the pace of new settlement activity and escalating violence against Palestinians, effective annexation of the West Bank was already taking place.
The US has also condemned the moves.
The E1 plan has been described as the 'doomsday' settlement, because it threatens to radically reduce the chance of ever finding a two-state solution, even in a future without Mr Netanyahu, who has always opposed a Palestinian state.
The project would divide the West Bank into northern and southern regions, preventing the development of a wider Palestinian metropolis connecting East Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Ramallah.
Activists said the proposal announced on Thursday was not for the original E1 project, but rather for 3,300 housing units in Ma'ale Adumim.
Peace Now said the project represented 'an increase of about 33 per cent in the settlement's housing stock'.
'We are standing at the edge of an abyss, and the government is driving us forward at full speed,' the group said.
Israel Gantz, the chairman of the Yesha settler group, an umbrella organisation for Jewish settlements in the West Bank, applauded 'another great and historical achievement for the settlement on the eve of the application of sovereignty'.
Most of the international community views Israeli settlements in the West Bank and its military occupation over the areas since the 1967 Six Days War as illegal.
About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognised by most countries but has not formally extended sovereignty over the West Bank.
The UN and most world powers say settlement expansion has eroded the viability of a two-state solution by fragmenting Palestinian territory.
Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area, which it calls Judea and Samaria, and says the settlements provide strategic depth and security.
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