Israel moves with plans to build thousands of illegal settlements
In a statement, a Palestinian governmental body focused on settlement issues cautioned that the plan risks cutting off East Jerusalem from surrounding Palestinian communities and could effectively obstruct the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state.
The E1 zone is regarded as a highly strategic corridor that Israel seeks to develop in order to connect Jerusalem with nearby settlements, particularly Maale Adumim. Palestinian officials argue that this would be achieved through land confiscation and extensive construction, ultimately preventing natural Palestinian urban expansion around East Jerusalem.
The head of the commission monitoring settlement activity said the tender issued by Israel’s land authorities marks the practical launch of a project that had remained officially frozen for nearly 30 years due to international pressure. He added that all approval procedures for the plan were finalized in August 2025.
According to the official, the initiative is designed to completely sever Jerusalem from its Palestinian hinterland, further fragment the West Bank, and block Palestinian development east of the city. He warned that such steps would permanently alter Jerusalem’s geographic and demographic character.
The same official noted that throughout 2025, Israel issued tenders for more than 10,000 settlement units across the occupied West Bank, with over 7,000 of them allocated to the Maale Adumim settlement alone.
An Israeli anti-settlement organization also criticized the E1 tender, describing it as “political recklessness” that erodes any remaining prospects for a negotiated political solution and a shared future for Israelis and Palestinians. The group warned that construction in the E1 area is intended to create irreversible facts on the ground, pushing the reality toward a single-state outcome and pointing to signs of an apartheid-like system.
The organization added that 2025 concluded with a record 9,629 settlement housing units advanced, including more than 6,700 in Maale Adumim, surpassing the total number of published tenders from the previous six years combined.
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