The far -right minister says that he will approve more than 3,000 new houses in the E1 region’s project.
The Minister of Finance of Israel, Bezalel Smotrich, says that he will approve thousands of housing in a very controversial and delayed illegal settlement project in an occupied West Bank, saying that “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.
Smotrich said Thursday that it would approve of tenders to build more than 3,000 houses in the E1 zone regulation project which would link Jerusalem and the existing illegal Israeli colony of Maale Audum, located several kilometers to the east.
“This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize,” he said. “Anyone in the world today trying to recognize a Palestinian state will receive a response from us in the field,” he said.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has qualified the new regulation plan for an extension of genocide, displacement and annexation crimes, and an echo of the declarations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concerning what he called “Greater Israel”.
In a statement before the announcement, Smotrich, which is also Minister of the Ministry of Israel of Defense, with a wide responsibility for approval of the colonies in occupied West Bank, praised the project as “Zionism to its best”.
“After decades of international pressure and frost, we break the Maale Adumim conventions and connections to Jerusalem,” added Smotrich.
The E1 plan has not yet received the final approval, which is expected next week.
Israel Gantz, president of the Yesha council – an umbrella organization of the illegal colonies in the West Bank – and head of the Binyamin Regional Council, also praised “the formidable and historical achievements for the colonial movement”, according to Israel National News.
Gantz said it was a “real revolution in strengthening the colonization business,” said the point of sale.
The development of the E1 regulation – which is illegal under international law – has been frozen for decades.
Observers believe that its location will hinder the realization of a future Palestinian state.
The regulations planned would effectively divide the Cisjordania occupied in regions of the North and South, preventing the creation of a contiguous Palestinian territory connecting Jerusalem occupying cities such as Bethlehem and Ramallah.
Israel postponed the plan in 2022 after pressure from the United States. But in recent months, the far -right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved road writing projects in the region and has started to restrict Palestinian access.
The mayor of Maale Adumim, Guy Yifrach, praised the new colony, claiming that he would “connect Maale Adumim to Jerusalem and serve as a Zionist response of the colony and the construction of the nation”.
“The Palestinians aimed to establish a grip through an illegal construction-this project will thwart this effort,” he said, according to Israel National News.
Wednesday, Israeli Peace Antisetally Anti-Studding Peace has now indicated that a total of 4,030 new dwellings had been approved in the occupied West Bank.
Some 730 are west of the existing Israeli colony of Ariel, while 3,300 had been approved in a new district of Maale Adumim which will link it “with the industrial zone to its east”.
“The 3,300 dwellings at Maale Adumim represent an increase of approximately 33% in the stock of housing in the colony-a huge expansion for a colony whose population has been around 38,000 in the past decade,” he said.
He added that the extension of Maale Adumim raised “serious questions about the need for E1 plan”.
