Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing has approved the start of bidding for 1,234 housing units in the occupied West Bank’s E1 settlement project, according to the source report. The Palestinian Authority condemned the move.
Bids are due by October 19. The tender covers one of two construction plans approved for E1, a project the Israeli government approved last year that envisions more than 3,400 housing units across roughly 12 square kilometres (4.6 square miles) of Palestinian land.
Why Palestinian officials oppose the tender
The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, a Palestinian Authority body affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization, warned that advancing the plans would confine Palestinians in the West Bank to “disconnected enclaves surrounded by settlements”.
The commission described the tender as part of a broader project to reshape the area between Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. Israeli settlements and outposts are illegal under international law, according to the source material.
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How the E1 plan would change the area
The project would connect settlements in occupied East Jerusalem with the Maale Adumim settlement bloc in the West Bank. The source report says this would sever East Jerusalem from the West Bank and essentially bisect the West Bank.
Rights organisation Ir Amim said even partial implementation would create irreversible facts on the ground, severing the northern West Bank from the south and isolating East Jerusalem. Peace Now warned that the project could disconnect dozens of Bedouin communities, including Khan al-Ahmar, and lead to their expulsion from their land.
What happens next
The tender deadline comes eight days before elections scheduled in Israel for October 27. The source report says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is expected to face falling support in that election period.
The E1 project has been delayed several times by the Israeli government. The source report’s correspondent said the tender indicates that the plan is now moving forward on the ground, while Peace Now accused the Netanyahu-Smotrich government of trying to undermine the two-state solution and bind a future government to the project.
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