Israel is moving forward with plans to expand settlements in the West Bank, with a government minister championing the initiative as a “final nail in the coffin” for a sovereign Palestinian state.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the government’s endorsement of the “E1 settlement plan” during a ceremony at the Maale Adumim settlement in the West Bank on Thursday.
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“After decades of international pressure and freezes, we are breaking conventions and connecting Maale Adumim to Jerusalem,” said Smotrich. “This is Zionism at its best — building, settling, and strengthening our sovereignty in the Land of Israel.”
“Today, anyone in the world who tries to recognize a Palestinian state today will receive an answer from us on the ground,” Smotrich said. “They will talk about a Palestinian dream — and we will continue to build a Jewish reality.”
The E1 plan would connect the Maale Adumim settlement to East Jerusalem, an area occupied by Israel but considered part of the Palestinian Territories by the United Nations.
Such a development would severely restrict Palestinians’ ability to travel between the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem and eat up large tracts of land in the already tiny region.
“This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize,” said Smotrich.
Smotrich, who for years has spearheaded illegal Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, claimed he was supported by both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump.
Regarding Netanyahu, Smotrich acknowledged his high-profile disagreements with the prime minister but claimed, “In the West Bank, he lets me do everything.”
Trump has largely allowed Netanyahu’s government to handle its war in Gaza on its own terms, despite a growing coalition of allies such as France, Canada, and the United Kingdom preparing to recognize Palestinian sovereignty at the U.N. meeting in September.
Other U.S. officials, such as Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, have proactively thrown their full weight behind Israel.
Huckabee publicly rebuked the idea of a two-state solution and questioned why Palestinian refugees should be allowed to remain in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs lamented the E1 plans on Thursday, calling the initiative a “continuation of the [Israeli] occupation’s plans to undermine the opportunity to establish the Palestinian state on its homeland, weaken its geographical and demographic unity, entrench the division of the West Bank into isolated areas surrounded by a sea of settlements, and facilitate the completion of their annexation.”
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“The Ministry views these tenders as an extension of the crimes of genocide, displacement, and annexation, and as an echo of Netanyahu’s statements regarding what he called ‘Greater Israel,'” the ministry wrote in response to the announcement.
The Israeli government also approved last week an operation to capture Gaza City, a military campaign that is expected to take months to complete.
Approximately 800,000 Palestinians are expected to be displaced by the Gaza City siege.