Maale Adumim (West Bank), Aug 14 (AP) — Israel's far-right finance minister announced the approval of new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday, a plan that Palestinians and rights groups fear will disrupt hopes for a future Palestinian state by effectively dividing the West Bank into two separate regions.
This development comes amid announcements from several countries, including Australia, Britain, France, and Canada, that they will recognize a Palestinian state come September.
"This reality effectively ends the notion of a Palestinian state, as there is nothing to recognize and no entity to acknowledge," stated Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during a Thursday ceremony.
"Any entity that attempts to recognize a Palestinian state will be met with our response on the ground," Smotrich warned. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not publicly comment on the plan on Thursday, although he has previously expressed support for it.
Development in the E1 area, a stretch of land east of Jerusalem, has been a topic of consideration for more than two decades but was consistently postponed due to past US presidential pressures.
On Thursday, Smotrich lauded President Donald Trump and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, calling them “unprecedented allies of Israel.”
The E1 plan is anticipated to receive final approval on Aug. 20, concluding 20 years of extensive bureaucratic negotiation. On Aug. 6, the planning committee dismissed all petitions challenging the construction submitted by rights groups and activists. While some bureaucratic steps remain, swift action could lead to infrastructure work commencing in the next few months, with home construction potentially starting in about a year.
Ahmed al Deek, political adviser to the Palestinian Foreign Affairs minister, called the approval a “colonial, expansionist, and racist endeavor.”
"This is part of the extremist Israeli government's strategy to thwart any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state, further fragment the West Bank, and isolate its southern region from the center and north," al Deek remarked.
Rights groups quickly critiqued the plan. Peace Now described it as “detrimental to Israel's future and any hope for a peaceful two-state solution,” predicting “more years of bloodshed.”
The announcement coincided with widespread condemnation from the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Tuesday interview comment where he expressed a strong attachment to the concept of a Greater Israel. While he did not provide details, supporters of this idea believe Israel should control, not just the occupied West Bank, but parts of surrounding Arab countries too.
Israel's settlement expansion plans are part of the increasingly challenging conditions for Palestinians in the West Bank, as global focus shifts to Gaza. There has been a notable rise in settler attacks on Palestinians, evictions from Palestinian settlements, and checkpoints obstructing freedom of movement.
Over 700,000 Israelis now reside in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories seized by Israel in 1967, which the Palestinians seek for a future state. The international community largely deems Israeli settlement building in these areas illegal and impediments to peace.
Currently, Israel's government is led by religious and ultranationalist politicians with strong connections to the settlement movement. Finance Minister Smotrich, a former fervent settler leader, holds cabinet-level authority over settlement policies and has pledged to double the settler population in the West Bank.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast conflict. The Palestinians lay claim to all three territories for an independent prospective state.
Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and treats it as part of its capital, a status not globally recognized. Though Israel sees the West Bank as contested land whose fate should be settled through negotiations, it withdrew from Gaza in 2005. (AP)
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