Joined by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Housing Minister Haim Katz, Netanyahu signaled a definitive shift in strategy, emboldened by the reversal of previous U.S. opposition to the E1 project. The planned expansion aims to double the population of Maale Adumim, effectively severing East Jerusalem from the West Bank and creating what critics describe as an impossible landscape for a future Palestinian capital.
In section Newsroom
Netanyahu Advances E1 Settlement Plan, Declaring Palestinian Statehood Dead
Standing in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that no Palestinian state would ever emerge under his watch. The declaration accompanied the signing of a development agreement for 3,400 new housing units in the E1 corridor, a move poised to fracture Palestinian territorial continuity.
Local officials in the neighboring town of Ezariyah warn that the construction will isolate the community, forcing the displacement of thousands and triggering the demolition of over 100 homes and businesses. While the Palestinian Authority maintains that statehood remains inevitable, activists argue that diplomatic recognition from 149 nations is failing to halt the reality on the ground. Inès Abdel Razek of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy characterized such international gestures as insufficient, asserting that the focus must shift toward ending the occupation and holding Israel accountable for the systematic annexation of land.
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