According to Smotrich, the illegal settlement in the West Bank is a move that essentially 'buries' the possibility of a Palestinian state.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has made headlines by announcing his approval for thousands of housing units in a highly contentious and long-stalled illegal settlement project in the occupied West Bank. He boldly stated that this move “buries the idea of a Palestinian state.” In a statement released on Wednesday, Smotrich revealed his plans to greenlight tenders for over 3,000 homes in the E1 area settlement project, which aims to link Jerusalem with the existing Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, situated just a few kilometers to the east. “The 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 declared. Smotrich, who also holds a position in Israel’s Ministry of Defence and has significant authority over settlement approvals in the occupied West Bank, praised the project as “Zionism at its best.” “After decades of international pressure and freezes, we are breaking conventions and connecting Maale Adumim to Jerusalem,” he added. Israel Gantz, the chairman of the Yesha Council—an umbrella organization for illegal settlements in the West Bank—and head of the Binyamin Regional Council, also lauded this as a “tremendous and historic achievement for the settlement movement,” according to Israel National News. Gantz described it as a “true revolution in strengthening the settlement enterprise,” the outlet reported. The proposed settlement would effectively split the occupied West Bank into northern and southern regions, hindering the establishment of a continuous Palestinian territory that connects occupied East Jerusalem to major cities like Bethlehem and Ramallah. Although Israel postponed the plan in 2022 due to pressure from the US, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has recently approved road-widening projects in the area and started to restrict Palestinian access. Maale Adumim's mayor, Guy Yifrach, expressed his support for the new settlement, stating it will “link Maale Adumim to Jerusalem and act as a Zionist response to settlement and nation-building.” He remarked, “The Palestinians aimed to establish a stranglehold through illegal construction – this project will thwart that effort,” as reported by Israel National News. On Wednesday, the Israeli anti-settlement organization Peace Now announced that a total of 4,030 new housing units have been approved in the occupied West Bank. Of these, about 730 are located west of the existing Israeli settlement of Ariel, while 3,300 have been greenlit for a new neighborhood in Maale Adumim that will connect it “with the industrial zone to its east.” According to the report, “The 3,300 housing units in Maale Adumim signify a roughly 33 percent increase in the settlement’s housing stock – a significant expansion for a settlement whose population has remained around 38,000 for the last decade.” The organization also pointed out that the Maale Adumim extension raises “serious questions about the necessity of the E1 plan.”

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