Smotrich says West Bank settlement ‘buries’ Palestinian state
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced his intention to approve the construction of thousands of housing units in a highly controversial and long-delayed illegal settlement project in the occupied West Bank.
Smotrich said he will approve tenders to build more than 3,000 homes in the E1 area settlement, connecting Jerusalem and the existing illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, located several kilometres to the east.
Expansion of the settlement, which divides the occupied West Bank into northern and southern regions, “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”, he said.
New Israeli settlement plan would cut off West Bank from East Jerusalem
Israeli plans to greenlight the construction of more than 3,000 homes in the E1 area settlement of the occupied West Bank are in line with its goal of blocking the establishment of a Palestinian state, says Al Jazeera correspondent Hamdah Salhut.
Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has announced his intention to approve the construction of thousands of housing units in the E1 area, which connects Jerusalem with the existing illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, located several kilometres to the east.
“The main problem here, with this E1 plan, is that it would completely cut off the occupied West Bank from occupied East Jerusalem, essentially… destroying all territorial continuity that would [be needed for] a future Palestinian state,” said Salhut.
“What this government has said is that they want to do everything in their power to block the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
Smotrich himself has said the expansion of the E1 settlement “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.
Smotrich claims Trump, Netanyahu support controversial E1 development in occupied West Bank
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he has support from US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his controversial plan to build thousands of homes on land that would bisect the territory of a future Palestinian state.
“[Netanyahu] backs me up in everything concerning Judea and Samaria, and is letting me create the revolution,” Smotrich said, using a biblical term for the West Bank. He spoke at an event in Maale Adumim, an illegal Israeli settlement, which would be connected to Jerusalem through the development, The Times of Israel newspaper reported.
Smotrich also said Trump and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, backed the plan to revive the long-frozen E1 settlement project, which the finance minister has said “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.
Smotrich thanked them for their support, calling them “men of truth with a clear and distinct moral voice that is not confused by the hypocrisy of the West”.
He added that Trump and Huckabee believed “that a Palestinian state would endanger the existence of Israel” and that the West Bank is “an inseparable part of our land, the one that God promised to our father Abraham and gave to us thousands of years ago”.
None of the three men have made any statements to confirm Smotrich’s claims.
