Israel’s E1 settlement plan has returned to the forefront as the occupation government prepares to resume construction through new tenders, drawing renewed international and human rights criticism over what is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous settlement projects threatening the possibility of a geographically contiguous Palestinian state.
The project extends east of occupied Jerusalem and is designed to link the Ma’ale Adumim settlement with the heart of the occupied city through the confiscation of Palestinian land and the creation of continuous Israeli urban development, while undermining Palestinian geographical continuity.
What Is the E1 Settlement Plan?
The E1 plan, short for East 1, is considered one of the most dangerous Israeli settlement projects because of its crucial geopolitical location and its implications for the possibility of establishing a territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
Although the Israeli plan linking Jerusalem with settlements in the occupied West Bank was formally approved in August 2025, its origins and detailed planning date back decades, with the project repeatedly expanded and developed over the years.
Where Is E1 Located?
The plan covers a settlement planning bloc located entirely in Area C of the occupied West Bank, territory under full Israeli control under the Oslo Accords.
The area covers around 12 square kilometres. Most of it has been declared “state land” by the occupation authorities and has been administratively incorporated into the Ma’ale Adumim settlement over the years.
The project sits in a strategic location between the large Ma’ale Adumim settlement and the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement northeast of Jerusalem.
It is surrounded by important Palestinian communities including Anata, Issawiya, Al-Za’im, Al-Eizariya and Abu Dis, making the area a focal point for demographic pressure and Israeli expansion at the expense of the natural Palestinian presence in and around Jerusalem.
A report by the Palestinian News and Information Agency, WAFA, said the selection of this particular location, at the narrowest point of the West Bank, was not accidental.
According to the report, it represented the systematic exploitation of temporary classifications created under the Oslo Accords in order to entrench permanent Israeli territorial control through legal and administrative mechanisms.
Historically, the stated purpose of E1 has extended beyond linking Ma’ale Adumim with Jerusalem.
The project forms part of a broader geopolitical vision known as “Greater Jerusalem”, which seeks to annex approximately 600 square kilometres, equivalent to around 10 per cent of the West Bank.
This goal is being advanced through the construction of road networks, industrial zones and new neighbourhoods across the E1 area.
International analyses have described implementation of the project as a policy of “de facto annexation”.
Such annexation would not only carry legal responsibilities and consequences for Israel as the occupying power, but would also seek to create continuous Israeli geographical and demographic control between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, contributing to the Judaisation of Jerusalem and its isolation from its Palestinian surroundings.
Decades of Planning and Expansion
E1 has gone through repeated stages of planning, freezing and reactivation before reaching formal approval.
The concept emerged in the 1990s as part of Israel’s strategy to expand its influence east of Jerusalem and connect major settlement blocs.
Since the beginning of that decade, the project has remained one of the occupation’s most consequential tools of geopolitical engineering, aimed at reshaping the geography of the West Bank and Jerusalem in line with its long-term settlement project.
The plan was first drawn up between 1991 and 1994 under Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as an urban extension of Ma’ale Adumim intended to connect the settlement with Jerusalem.
It quickly developed into a broader strategy reflecting the core of the Israeli settlement project, which seeks to fragment Palestinian geography and transform Palestinian areas into isolated “cantons”.
Between 1997 and 1999, Israeli security and government authorities approved structural maps for the project, while thousands of dunams of surrounding land were declared “state land”, creating what Israel regarded as the legal basis for later expansion.
Between 2009 and 2012, the project was temporarily frozen under international pressure.
It was later reactivated in response to the upgrading of Palestine’s status at the United Nations, with design tenders issued before implementation was again suspended.
Between 2014 and 2020, low-profile infrastructure works revived the plan, particularly amid the political momentum created by the so-called “Deal of the Century”, alongside official discussions about constructing 3,500 settlement units in the area.
Over the past two decades, E1 has repeatedly been frozen because of intense international pressure and recognition of its implications for any political settlement.
Internationally, implementation of E1 has long been regarded as a red line because of its potential to eliminate any realistic prospect of a two-state solution.
Proposed Alternative Road Rejected by Palestinians
In 2008, in an attempt to ease international criticism, the Israeli government under then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed building an alternative road connecting Bethlehem and Ramallah.
The road was intended to allow Palestinians to travel around Ma’ale Adumim.
The Palestinian side rejected the proposal, arguing that accepting it would legitimise the geographical fragmentation imposed by the settlement project.
The proposed bypass route was also intended to separate Palestinian traffic from settler traffic.
Approval in 2025
Between July and August 2025, the project entered a decisive phase.
An objections committee rejected all appeals against the plan, offering only procedural recommendations, before Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the start of practical implementation.
The move represented one of the most serious steps yet towards preventing the creation of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state.
WAFA said the project, viewed in its historical sequence, was not simply an urban planning initiative but a structural strategic project aimed at changing the demographic and political reality.
It warned that E1 threatens the Palestinian presence as a whole while transforming Jerusalem into an enclosed settlement centre isolated from its Palestinian surroundings, in violation of international law and international resolutions.
E1 Revived on an Unprecedented Scale
The year 2025 marked a major shift in the project.
E1 was revived and advanced at an unprecedented pace despite international pressure, with hearings held to secure final approval of detailed plans.
The approval process peaked in August 2025, when plans for the construction of a total of 3,401 new settlement units received final approval.
Particular concern was raised by the shift away from housing-based justifications towards open declarations of the project’s geopolitical purpose.
Smotrich said the aim of approving construction was to “bury the two-state solution”, adding that a Palestinian state was being removed from the table not through slogans but through actions, and declaring that “this land belongs to Israel”.
The structure of the project reflects geopolitical engineering designed to create permanent facts on the ground.
It is not limited to residential construction but includes a complex network of functional infrastructure designed to consolidate Israeli control and systematically separate Palestinian communities.
A Fully Functioning Israeli City
The project has been approved for the construction of thousands of new settlement units in the strategic corridor.
Its structural details indicate an ambition to establish a fully functioning Israeli city with comprehensive infrastructure rather than simply a residential neighbourhood attached to an existing settlement.
The project includes security, economic and tourism facilities.
In 2012, the occupation government approved plans involving the seizure of 1,350 dunams for the establishment of an industrial zone northwest of the E1 area.
A further 180 dunams were allocated for the construction of a headquarters for the occupation police.
The police facility was subsequently built as part of the broader expansion of confiscated areas.
The confiscation plans also included the seizure of 500 dunams of land belonging to Anata and Shuafat for the creation of a waste disposal site that would later be converted into a public park.
Three detailed construction plans were also included.
One covered the construction of 2,176 settlement units, another included 256 units, while additional plans provided for 2,152 hotel rooms.
Approval was also granted for the construction of another 1,250 housing units and a biblical park northwest of the project area.
According to WAFA, Israel also approved a plan to construct what it calls the “Fabric of Life” road.
Part of the road has already been constructed near the separation and expansion wall east of Anata towards Al-Za’im.
A second section is proposed from Al-Za’im to Al-Eizariya.
The road is intended to facilitate the implementation and development of the settlement project while also serving as a future alternative route that could enable Israel to divert Palestinian traffic away from the Jerusalem-Al-Eizariya road and prevent Palestinians from using it.
Dividing the West Bank and Isolating Jerusalem
The strategic importance of E1 stems from its location at a point that threatens to sever the territorial continuity of any future Palestinian state.
Its implementation would effectively divide the West Bank into two parts, separating its northern areas, represented by Ramallah governorate, from the southern governorates of Bethlehem and Hebron.
The area between Ramallah, Jerusalem and Bethlehem represents a crucial urban corridor and the geographical backbone of any future Palestinian state.
Once E1 is implemented, the possibility of developing this continuous corridor would be severely restricted.
According to the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem, known as ARIJ, the process is intended to fragment the West Bank into isolated and disconnected enclaves under absolute Israeli security control, effectively eliminating the geographical basis for a viable Palestinian state.
Politically, the project also seeks to transform the reality in Jerusalem.
By surrounding East Jerusalem with settlements and cutting it off from its natural Palestinian hinterland in the West Bank, E1 would undermine the possibility of establishing a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.
Threat of Forced Displacement
Implementation of the project is also closely linked to the forced displacement of Palestinian Bedouin communities.
Around 7,000 Palestinians living across 22 Bedouin communities, most notably the Jahalin Bedouins, face the risk of forcible displacement because of the E1 project.
Communities such as Khan al-Ahmar occupy a strategic location overlooking the narrowest point of the West Bank.
According to the Centre for Arab Unity Studies, their presence is regarded by Israeli planners as an obstacle to creating direct settlement continuity between Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley.
Humanitarian and Legal Consequences
The United Nations has said the forced displacement associated with E1 represents one of the most serious violations of international humanitarian law linked to the project.
Such displacement forms part of a broader strategy to create a coercive environment intended to force Palestinian residents to leave.
The occupation authorities use the pretext of “construction without permits” as a legal tool to demolish Palestinian homes and structures, including the school in Khan al-Ahmar, despite the fact that these communities have lived in the area for decades.
Repeated attempts to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar have brought the issue to the forefront of international attention.
Residents of Khan al-Ahmar have rejected Israeli proposals to relocate them to alternative sites, insisting on their right to remain on their land.
They maintain that the area is occupied territory governed by Jordanian law, under which detailed planning applications can be submitted to legalise residential structures.
The continued push to demolish these communities, despite the existence of Ottoman-era documents cited as proof of Palestinian ownership of the land, has reinforced accusations that the objective is neither administrative nor environmental.
Instead, the demolitions are viewed as a tactic intended to reduce the political cost of direct government-led displacement in order to facilitate the larger settlement project.
United Nations human rights reports have said the coercive environment facing Palestinians in Area C has continued to worsen.
Since 7 October 2023, escalating Israeli settler violence and harassment of Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank has led to the forced displacement of at least 2,700 Palestinians, most of them from Area C.
International Rejection
The E1 project has faced broad international rejection over its illegality.
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered illegal under international law.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted in 2016, reinforced this position by affirming that Israeli settlements, including E1, have “no legal validity” and constitute a flagrant violation of international law.
The International Court of Justice added further legal weight to this position in its advisory opinion issued in July 2024.
The court found that the transfer of Israeli settlers into occupied territory and the maintenance of their presence there violated the Fourth Geneva Convention.
According to the UN Human Rights Office, Israel is therefore required to immediately halt all new settlement activity and evacuate settlers from occupied territory.
Following the renewed advancement of E1 in 2025, international condemnations intensified, with the project described as “one of the most dangerous settlement plans in decades”.
The European External Action Service warned that proceeding with the project would violate international law and lead to a “permanent” severing of geographical continuity between East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Britain Summons Israeli Diplomat Over New Tender
The latest international response followed the issuing of a new construction tender for the project.
Britain announced on Wednesday that it had summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires and demanded that the occupation government halt the project and withdraw the tender.
London said the move crossed a red line that Israel had previously pledged not to cross.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband described the tender as an “unacceptable and destructive act”.
He warned that construction in such a sensitive area would endanger the possibility of implementing a two-state solution.
Miliband said the Israeli government must “halt the E1 plans immediately, withdraw the tender and stop all forms of settlement expansion”.
Previous Israeli Commitments
According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, European countries view the latest Israeli move as a breach of previous commitments made by Tel Aviv not to proceed with construction in the E1 area, which lies beyond the Green Line and holds major strategic importance for the future of the West Bank.
The newspaper quoted a European diplomat as saying that “Israel clearly promised its friends in Europe that it would not move forward with construction in the E1 area”.
The diplomat described the issuing of the tender as “crossing a red line and a very serious development”.
