Israel continues with one of its most controversial settlement plans on the western banks: the construction of thousands of homes in the area known as E1, which would connect Jerusalem with the Malale Adumim settlement. This seeks to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
The Israeli plan, arrested for decades for international pressure, would divide the territory into two and make it difficult for Jerusalem to be capital of a future Palestinian statehe said CNN.
The Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, confirmed on Thursday the pending approval of 3 401 new housing units, during a press conference in the place where construction is projected.
“They will talk about a Palestinian dream, and we will continue to build a Jewish reality. This reality is that will permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize or anyone to recognize,” Smotrich said.
Israel and the plan to exterminate the Palestinian state
The reactivation of the E1 would depart in two the western banks, preventing the territorial continuity necessary for a viable Palestinian state.
The plan is expected to receive final approval next week, according to CNN.
Smotrich has urged prime minister several times Benjamin Netanyahu to Annex the West Ribera and apply Israeli sovereignty especially the territory.
In a statement, the presidency of the Palestinian National Council condemned the project, qualifying it as a “systematic plan to steal land, Judaize them and impose biblical and Talmudic facts to the conflict”.
The president of the agency, Rawhi Fattouh, added that The “Colonial Plan is part of the gradual annexation policy” of Israelaccompanied by violence of settlers against Palestinians.
Illegal settlements and international reactions
International Law considers Israeli settlements illegal on the western banks.
However, during Donald Trump’s first government, the United States declared that he did not consider them “incompatible” with international legality, a position that the Biden administration later maintained.
Smotrich presented the progress of E1 as Israel’s response to the recent wave of countries that have expressed their intention to recognize a Palestinian state.
The Israeli NGO Peace Now warned that the project is “mortal for the future of Israel and for any possibility of achieving a peaceful solution of two states.”
In a statement, he warned:
“We are on the verge of an abyss, and the government drives us forward at full speed. Annexation movements increasingly move us away from this solution and guarantee many more years of bloodshed. ”
