On August 20, 2025, the Israeli Higher Planning Council approved the controversial E1 settlement plan east of Jerusalem, which would see the construction of 3,753 housing units in the West Bank (see Map 1). The council, part of Israel’s Civil Administration, which fully governs Area C of the West Bank, approved 3,401 units in the E1 zone adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Ma‘ale Adumim, and 342 in the Israeli settlement outpost of Asael—built without authorization—in the southern West Bank.1 In May 2025, the Civil Administration legalized Asael as part of the larger E1 settlement plan to bisect the West Bank.2

The announcement sparked international condemnation, as construction of these settlements will split the occupied West Bank and deal a fatal blow to any possibility of a future two-state solution. A joint statement by nearly 30 state governments, including the UK, Australia, France, and Canada, as well as the EU Commission, declared Israel’s announcement “unacceptable and a violation of international law.” They called on the Israeli government to “urgently retract this plan” to avoid further violence and instability by obliterating the possibility of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.3

Israeli settlement watchdog and advocacy group Peace Now warned: “Under the cover of war, [Israeli finance minister Bezalel] Smotrich and his messianic minority are building a settlement doomed for evacuation in any agreement. E1’s sole aim is to sabotage a political solution and rush toward a binational apartheid state.”4

“The discussion for final approval of construction in E1 came at record speed: about two weeks after the hearing of objections on August 6, 2025,” Yonatan Mizrachi, codirector of the Settlement Watch project at Peace Now, told Jerusalem Story. He noted that E1 settlements will “cut the West Bank in two and prevent the development of the metropolitan area between Ramallah, East Jerusalem, and Bethlehem.”5

Additionally, on July 25, 2025, the expansion of the Ma‘ale Adumim settlement bloc by 3,522 housing units was also approved.6 In total, 7,275 housing units for Jewish settlers are expected to be built in and around the E1 area.

“The approval demonstrates how determined Israel is in pursuing what Minister Smotrich has described as a strategic program to bury the possibility of a Palestinian state and to effectively annex the West Bank,” Aviv Tatarsky, researcher at Ir Amim, an Israeli rights group monitoring Jerusalem policy, said. “This is a conscious Israeli choice to implement an apartheid regime.”7

The Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah also condemned the move. The foreign ministry made the following statement: “This plan will isolate Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings, submerge it in massive settlement blocs,” and fragment the West Bank “into disconnected enclaves resembling open-air prisons.”8 The PA called for international action, including sanctions against Israel to stop its settler-colonial expansion.

Dr. Khalil Toufakji, a Palestinian cartographer and head of the Technical Department at the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, explained that construction of the E1 development plan is part of fulfilling Israel’s Jerusalem 2050 plan, which seeks to transform Jerusalem into a largely Jewish, high-tech tourist hub with minimal, docile Palestinian presence by the year 2050. Yet this master plan, part of Israel’s Greater Jerusalem plan, has a much more sinister underlying objective: to attract more Jews to the city and shift the demographic balance in Israel’s favor (see Israel’s Vision of a Greater [Jewish] Jerusalem).9

“This is the last piece of land we have [on which] to build our parliament,” Toufakji told Jerusalem Story, referring to the open area along what Israel refers to as E1. “So, if Israel builds it, it means that there is no Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.”10

The E1 development plan was announced in 1994 and aimed to turn the 12-kilometer stretch of land belonging to the Palestinian towns and neighborhoods of al-Tur, ‘Anata, al-‘Izariyya, Hizma, ‘Arab al-Jahalin, al-Za‘ayim, and Abu Dis into a commercial and industrial zone for Israelis.11 Its construction will seal off Palestinian communities in the rest of the occupied West Bank from East Jerusalem while linking Ma‘ale Adumim to Jerusalem via the so-called Sovereignty Road—also known as the Fabric of Life Road and the Apartheid Road (see Jerusalem Expert Explains Israel’s Apartheid Road Expansion)—thereby solidifying Israeli control of the E1 corridor and fulfilling Israel’s vision of a Greater Jerusalem.12 The Greater Jerusalem plan aims to cover 10 percent of the West Bank and connect the three rings of Israeli settlements in and around Jerusalem (see The Three Settlement Rings in and around East Jerusalem: Supplanting Palestinian Jerusalem), inflating the city’s Jewish population and erasing Jerusalem’s historically multireligious diversity.13

The E1 area is located in the center of the occupied Palestinian West Bank, with the Palestinian cities of Ramallah to its north, Bethlehem to its south, and East Jerusalem to its west. The construction of a massive settlement in this pivotal central area would sever the northern West Bank from its southern half, making a contiguous Palestinian state impossible. Despite being proposed in the 1990s, it took decades for E1 to be finalized due to heavy international pressure against it.

The recent surge in declarations of intent to recognize Palestinian statehood, including among Israel’s staunchest major allies, might explain Israel’s rush to move ahead with E1. If there is no geographic possibility for a Palestinian state, recognition of statehood is rendered moot—Israel’s tried-and-true method of creating “facts on the ground.” Yet Ir Amim’s Tatarsky doesn’t see this as the Israeli government’s true intention, especially since international proclamations of support for Palestinian statehood have thus far been confined to rhetoric.

“Today, E1 is not really about the prevention of a Palestinian state,” Tatarsky said during a July 29, 2025, press tour of E1.14 Rather, Tatarsky believes the project is about power.

“Israeli annexation is not an event that took place and stopped . . . it’s a process that never ends. There’s always the next thing that needs to be taken,” Tatarsky said. “Annexation needs to be expanded. Israeli control needs to be strengthened . . . . It never ends.”

According to Tatarsky, the construction of E1 means the al-Za‘ayim checkpoint, which many Palestinians use to enter into East Jerusalem, will need to be moved eastward in order to create a contiguous, free-moving Israeli space from Ma‘ale Adumim to E1 and then to Jerusalem unencumbered by obstacles like checkpoints.

To relocate the checkpoint, Israel may move forward with construction of the planned but as-yet not-built additions to the Separation Wall (see Map 2). Construction of this sprawling, meandering extension to the wall will cut deeper into the West Bank, enfolding the large illegal Israeli settlements of Ma‘ale Adumim, Mishor Adumim, Kfar Adumim, and Kedar into Jerusalem. “Moving it [the checkpoint] eastwards along the highway means . . . Palestinian traffic will not be able to go between al-‘Izariyya and Ramallah,” Tatarsky said. “So, the last part of what Israel needs to do in order to achieve this is to construct an alternative highway for Palestinian traffic.” While Israel claims the new highway will improve traffic conditions for Palestinians, Tatarsky explained, the area “has been made Israeli—de facto annexed . . . . In real terms, it means extra apartheid, and today, it looks like—or at least Israel feels that—it can go ahead with it.”

Israel’s certainty in its ability to implement its apartheid policies was made clear by Smotrich in his public statement following the approval of the E1 plan:

The construction of a separate road for Palestinians is already in the works. In March 2025, Israel approved extending Route 4370, linking al-‘Izariyya to the Palestinian villages of ‘Anata and Hizma—effectively diverting Palestinian traffic outside of E1.

“Israel claims when they’re building this road that they’re going to make Palestinian lives easier,” Muhammad Mattar of the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said during the July 29, 2025, press tour on E1.16 Mattar disputes this, saying that the new bypass road would entrench apartheid. “We’re getting an apartheid road where Israelis are not allowed to go, and we’re not allowed to go on their road,” he said.

More than a million Palestinians already drive on this road daily, causing constant traffic jams. Mattar explained that it takes Palestinians an average of four hours to travel the 60 kilometers from Hebron to Ramallah due to the various obstacles along the road, including checkpoints and other occupation infrastructure. The new road would not alleviate this.

The planned segregated route has already impacted Palestinians’ lives, even before its completion. On August 4, 2025, the Civil Administration delivered notices to Palestinian shops in al-‘Izariyya ordering them to self-demolish their structures within 60 days to make way for the highway.17 Mattar elaborated that, if the demolition orders are carried out, 15 to 20 Palestinian families will suffer as a result.

“Instead of allowing Palestinians to develop the land for their use, it’ll be taken away from them,” Tatarsky said. “When you look at the wider picture, it means this big area has been shut off to Palestinians.”

E1 won’t just disrupt Palestinian economic livelihood and freedom of movement. Its development will also lead to the displacement of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins. According to Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights and Targeted Villages, 18 Bedouin communities, comprising 3,700 individuals, live within and around E1.

“This [E1] decision places Bedouin communities at the center of the targeting zone, making the threat of forced displacement more imminent than ever,” Al-Baidar stated in an August 16, 2025, press release.18 “The decision advances the linkage of Ma‘ale Adumim to Jerusalem, inevitably leading to the erasure or forced transfer of all Bedouin communities in between. Mass demolitions and relocation to unsuitable sites are expected within months.”

These communities already suffer from ongoing violence from surrounding Israeli settlers and confiscation and demolition of their properties by Israeli occupation forces.19 Al-Baidar warns the approval of E1 will fast-track this ethnic cleansing: “If the E1 plan proceeds, it will sever the West Bank into north and south, eliminate Palestinian territorial continuity around Jerusalem, and destroy the Bedouin presence in the Eastern Corridor—one of the last active Palestinian footholds in the area.”