Overview

• The defence ministry’s planning committee signed off on the E1 plan on Aug. 20 after the last legal petitions were rejected on Aug. 6.
• The project authorizes roughly 3,400–3,500 housing units next to Ma’ale Adumim east of Jerusalem in an area viewed as the key corridor between Ramallah and Bethlehem.
• Peace Now says infrastructure work could start within months, with housing construction beginning in about a year if the timetable holds.
• The Palestinian Authority condemned the decision, while the UN and European governments including the UK and Germany warned it violates international law and threatens prospects for a negotiated peace.
• Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich celebrated the approval as burying the idea of Palestinian statehood, and said the same meeting also cleared 350 homes in the Ashael settlement near Hebron.