Key facts
- Israel added a tender for 2,167 housing units to its E1 settlement expansion plan.
- The E1 project would bisect the occupied West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem.
- The total number of housing units in the E1 project is now 3,401.
- Palestinian officials called the tenders a violation of international law.
- The tender bidding opens October 25, two days before Israel's parliamentary election.
- Western nations and campaign groups oppose the E1 project.
Israel has added a tender for 2,167 housing units to its E1 settlement expansion plan in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli rights group Ir Amim. This brings the total number of units in the project to 3,401, a move that critics argue fragments Palestinian territory and endangers the viability of a future Palestinian state.
The E1 project is intended to bisect the West Bank and sever its connection to East Jerusalem. The latest tender follows an announcement at the end of August for 1,234 units. The bidding for the new units is scheduled to open on October 25, just two days before Israel's parliamentary election.
Ir Amim stated that the timing of the bidding date demonstrates the government's determination to advance the E1 project and establish an "increasingly irreversible reality on the ground ahead of the elections." Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of the governing right-wing coalition, has previously said the plan would "bury" a Palestinian state.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's representative condemned the tenders on Thursday, calling them a violation of international law. Many Western nations and campaign groups have also voiced opposition to the E1 settlement project, concerned it could undermine a future peace deal. Last week, Britain, France, and Canada banned exports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband stated that the E1 project risks making a Palestinian state unviable.