For Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a figurehead of the ultranationalist and messianic right, yesterday was a “historic moment.” “The Palestinian state has been erased, not with slogans, but with deeds. Every new house is a nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea,” he declared. For religious and nationalist parties, E1 is not just a giant new neighborhood, but a way to strengthen Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem.
The E1 project has been discussed since the 90s, when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was in power. The 12-square-kilometer area beyond the ceasefire line has always been intended as an eastern “protective belt” for Jerusalem, to be urbanized with housing and factories that would connect the holy city with the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim (40 inhabitants), thus creating the so-called “Greater Jerusalem”. However, for almost a decade, domestic opposition and international criticism kept the project only on paper. If implemented, the E1 would cut the West Bank in half, destroying any possibility of a future Palestinian state.
The project was revived in 2012 by Benjamin Netanyahu, but only on the eve of the 2020 elections did it begin to take shape as an electoral promise. The approval process was long, but in 2023 it was eased by the new government’s reform that stripped the Defense Minister of the power to stop or delay construction phases. This led to a tripling of decisions on settlement expansion by 2025. Yesterday, the E1 process culminated in the approval by the Israeli Civil Administration’s subcommittee in the West Bank, a decision that paves the way for construction.
According to the plan, 3401 housing units will be built in the area where dozens of Bedouin communities currently live, including the village of Khan al-Ahmar. In addition, 342 more homes are planned in a settlement that was legalized in February 2023. Three organizations, Peace Now, Ir Amin and the Association for Environmental Justice, have been fighting against this project for years, warning that it affects the only free space between Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where about 1 million Palestinians live. Peace Now activists describe E1 as “one of the most dangerous projects, an open sabotage of the political solution to the conflict, which will condemn Israelis and Palestinians to permanent conflict”. According to them, the new constructions will increase the housing stock of Ma’ale Adumim by 33%.
The plan also involves the construction of road infrastructure. Israeli authorities have approved a new road, now called the “apartheid road”, which will be used only by Palestinians, diverting them from the main artery Route 1. In this segment between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, traffic will remain reserved only for Israeli citizens.
For Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a figure of the ultranationalist and messianic right, yesterday was a “historic moment”. “The Palestinian state has been erased, not with slogans, but with deeds. Every new house is a nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea”, he declared. For religious and nationalist parties, E1 is not just a giant new neighborhood, but a way to strengthen Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem. On the other hand, strong reactions came from the European Union, which stressed that the project “violates international law”, as well as from the United Kingdom.