Minister fetes ‘historic’ approval of controversial construction scheme in West Bank’s E1 area, upending a decades-long freeze; PA says move divides West Bank into ‘prisons.’ A major construction project that would see some 3,400 housing units built in the contentious E1 area in the West Bank, between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, was given final approval Wednesday. Announced last week by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the controversial plan was formally greenlit by the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration, a Defense Ministry department.
Smotrich, who also holds a junior ministerial position in the Defense Ministry that grants him wide say in settlement construction, called the decision “historic.” He described the construction plan as a “significant step that practically erases the two-state delusion and consolidates the Jewish people’s hold on the heart of the Land of Israel.”
“The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not by slogans but by deeds. Every settlement, every neighborhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea,” the far-right minister declared. He cast the dramatic move, which will effectively bisect the West Bank, as retaliation against Western states that announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state in recent weeks. (Read More)