On August 20, 2025, the Israeli government took a decisive step in the decades-long conflict over the West Bank, granting final approval to the controversial E1 settlement plan. The move, which has been met with widespread condemnation from Palestinian officials, international leaders, and human rights organizations, threatens to redraw the map of the region and, according to many, bury the long-held hope for a contiguous Palestinian state.
The E1 plan, as approved by the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration under Israel’s Defense Ministry, calls for the construction of 3,400 new housing units in a 4.6-square-mile stretch of land between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim. This area, known as E1, is more than just a patch of rocky hillside. It is a linchpin, connecting the northern West Bank city of Ramallah with Bethlehem in the south and serving as one of the last remaining corridors linking Palestinian communities across the territory.
For years, the E1 plan had been a red line for Western governments and a flashpoint for Palestinian communities. According to ABC News, the area is designated as Area C, where Israel exerts full civil and security control—a status that covers roughly 60% of the West Bank. Only 18% of the territory falls under full Palestinian Authority control. The significance of E1 lies not only in its geography but also in its symbolism: its development is widely seen as a major obstacle to the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a vocal supporter of the settlement movement, did not mince words when announcing the plan’s approval. At a press conference in Maale Adumim, Smotrich declared, “The seal has broken. Whoever in the world is trying to recognize a Palestinian state today, will receive our answer on the ground.” He went further, stating, “This reality definitively buries the idea of a Palestinian state, simply because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize.”
For Palestinians, the implications are dire. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, in a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter), condemned the plan, saying it “undermines the prospects of implementing the two-state solution, embodying the Palestinian state on the ground, and fragments its geographical and demographic unity.” The ministry’s statement added, “It entrenches the division of the occupied West Bank into isolated areas and cantons, disconnected from one another geographically, resembling actual prisons where movement between them is only possible through occupation checkpoints amidst the terror of armed settler militias spread throughout the West Bank.”
On the ground, the impact of the E1 plan is already being felt. Bedouin communities, particularly those in the area of Jabal Al-Baba to the west of Maale Adumim, have received orders to leave their homes ahead of planned demolition works. Atallah Al-Jahelin, a representative of the Bedouin community, told ABC News that locals have been notified of impending demolitions tied to the settlement expansion. These communities, descendants of historically semi-nomadic groups, have long served as stewards of the land, resisting repeated attempts at displacement. Many migrated to the central West Bank after being expelled from the Naqeb (Negev) desert in the 1950s, a chapter of Palestinian history known as the Nakba, or Catastrophe.
Human rights organizations, including the United Nations, have warned that the forced removal of these communities could amount to a “forced transfer of a population,” a grave breach of international law. Murad Jadallah, a researcher with the Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, described the E1 plan as “very strategic for Israel to push these communities [off their land],” noting that their displacement would not only erase a way of life but also further fragment Palestinian society.
International reaction was swift and overwhelmingly critical. British Foreign Minister David Lammy called the plan “a flagrant breach of international law and a critical blow to the two-state solution.” The German Foreign Ministry warned that the settlement would “further restrict the mobility of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, effectively divide the West Bank into two halves and cut East Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank.” France’s Foreign Ministry urged Israel to abandon the project, labeling it a “serious violation of international law.”
European countries, including Ireland, France, Norway, and Spain, have recently announced intentions to recognize a Palestinian state, citing mounting pressure to respond to Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has gone a step further, stating that the UK will recognize an independent Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza and takes concrete steps toward peace. French President Emmanuel Macron has echoed this stance, signaling France’s readiness to recognize Palestinian statehood as well.
Despite the chorus of international criticism, the United States has signaled it will not intervene. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee stated, “We will not dictate to Israel what to do, we will not interfere in the running of the country. It would be very strange to say that others can live in this area but Israelis cannot.” This marks a departure from the position of previous U.S. administrations, which had opposed settlement construction in E1. Analysts, including Tahani Mustafa of the International Crisis Group, argue that Israel has calculated that the international community will take no meaningful action to halt the expansion, especially given strong U.S. support under President Donald Trump.
The roots of the E1 plan stretch back to 1994, when it was first proposed under then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, just a year after the signing of the Oslo Accords. Construction began in 2004 but was largely frozen for two decades to appease Western leaders wary of undermining the peace process. Yet, as Al Jazeera reports, the aftermath of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023 and the subsequent war on Gaza have seen a dramatic escalation in Israeli actions across the territories. Over 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and more than 1,000 in the West Bank over the past two years, according to human rights monitors.
Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti, speaking to Democracy Now!, described the situation as “the erasure of Palestinians and blatantly saying that ‘we are going to bury’ any prospects of a Palestinian state.” Barghouti emphasized that the E1 plan is not merely a future threat but the continuation of a longstanding strategy to fragment Palestinian territory and society. “This is strategic. It is tactical. It means that Palestinians are unable to organize and are unable to live collectively,” she said. “The West Bank is nearly 6,000 kilometers squared in size, and it has been the prize for Israel.”
For many Palestinians, the approval of the E1 plan is not just a bureaucratic decision—it is a turning point. As Imad al-Jahalin, leader of a shepherd community in Bir al-Maskub, put it, “There is fear and panic because we don’t know if this [settlement] is going to cut through our village and houses.” Yet, despite the uncertainty, he and others insist they are not thinking of leaving. “Our people for now … are not thinking of going anywhere.”
As bulldozers prepare to break ground and diplomatic battles play out in international forums, the fate of E1 has become a microcosm of the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict—a struggle not only over land, but over the very possibility of peace, justice, and a future for two peoples who have called this land home for generations.
