The Palestinian Authority (PA) has condemned Israel's decision to issue tenders for the construction of more than 1,200 new housing units in the West Bank under the E1 settlement project. The move is seen as a new step toward realizing the controversial settlement plan.
The Committee against Settlements and the Separation Wall (CRRC), affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), issued a statement on October 14 warning that accelerating the plan would confine Palestinians in the West Bank to 'isolated lands surrounded by settlements.'
The E1 plan, approved by the Israeli government last year, aims to build more than 3,400 housing units on approximately 12 square kilometers of Palestinian land in the West Bank. Under international law, Israeli settlements and outposts in the area are illegal.
The plan would connect thousands of settlements in East Jerusalem, which Israel has illegally annexed, with the Maale Adumim settlement bloc in the West Bank. This would completely sever East Jerusalem — which Palestinians envision as the capital of their future state — from the West Bank and effectively bisect the West Bank into two parts.
The tender submission deadline for the project is expected to close on October 19, just over a week before Israel's elections on October 27, a time when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are projected to face declining support.
CRRC said the issuance of tenders for 1,200 housing units should be seen as a step in a broader geopolitical plan to reshape the area between Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley.
Al Jazeera's Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Hizma in the West Bank, said that if the E1 project were realized, it would be 'the final nail in the coffin' of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 'The E1 project has been delayed multiple times by the Israeli government, but now we see it taking place on the ground,' she said, adding that 'Israel's ultimate goal is to force Palestinians to leave.'
On the same day, the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing approved the tender process for 1,234 housing units. According to the Israeli human rights organization Ir Amim and the peace advocacy group Peace Now, this is one of two construction plans approved for E1.
In a statement on October 14, Ir Amim warned that even partial implementation would 'create an irreversible reality, fundamentally change the geographic and strategic character of the area, sever the northern and southern West Bank, and isolate East Jerusalem.'
Peace Now, in a statement on X, accused the 'Netanyahu-Smotrich government' (referring to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler) of trying to 'bury the two-state solution' through the settlement project. 'Amid the election campaign, the government is trying to turn the annexationist vision of the pro-settler faction into reality and tie the hands of the next government. This move also violates the state's clear commitments,' the statement said.
'The price is not only diplomatic. Implementing E1 and closing the area to Palestinians threatens to displace dozens of Bedouin communities, including Khan al-Ahmar, and lead to their displacement from their land,' Peace Now warned.
