Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signed an agreement to push ahead with the controversial E1 plan settlement expansion plan that would split the occupied West Bank into two parts, and cut across land that the Palestinians seek for a future sovereign state.
Addressing a press conference in the illegal Ma’ale Adumim settlement east of al-Quds on Thursday, Netanyahu said he had taken the measure with the heads of several settlement councils near the city to expand them under the scheme.
“There will never be a Palestinian state. This place belongs to us. We will safeguard our heritage, our land and our security,” Netanyahu asserted.
He added, “Israel’s eastern front is not the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, but the Jordan Valley (in the West Bank).”
On August 20, Israel approved the E1 project, which envisions the construction of thousands of settler units in Ma'ale Adumim and surrounding areas, would bisect the occupied West Bank and sever connections between its northern and southern flanks and isolate East al-Quds.
At the time, the US ambassador to the Israeli-occupied territories, Mike Huckabee, claimed on Israeli Army Radio that the extensive development of settlements in the occupied West Bank does not constitute a breach of international law, and that Washington would not stand against it.
Although Huckabee’s remarks pertained to the entirety of the occupied Palestinian territory, he also specifically mentioned the proposed settlement in the E1 region of occupied al-Quds.
Palestinians warn that the so-called E1 plan is part of Netanyahu’s vision for a “Greater Israel,” warning that it would entrench the occupation and eliminate the viability of a Palestinian state.
The term "Greater Israel" has been used since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War to describe the territories occupied by Israel, including East al-Quds, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and Syria’s strategic Golan Heights.
Early Zionist thinkers, such as Ze’ev Jabotinsky—widely regarded as the ideological forerunner of Netanyahu’s Likud party—expanded this vision to include present-day Jordan. The idea of "Greater Israel" is a core tenet of Likud’s political legacy, rooted in Revisionist Zionism.
The separation of East al-Quds from certain areas of the West Bank, often compared to the apartheid system in South Africa, will compel Palestinians to undertake long detours when traveling between various cities and towns.
On August 14, far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich announced his intention to move forward with the highly contentious project that “buries the concept of a Palestinian state”.
Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers since October 2023.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds. All mere words.
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