Bids for more than 1,200 new homes in the E1 area of the occupied West Bank opened on August 18, and by Thursday four European governments had told Israel to pull the plan. France, Italy, Britain and Germany issued a joint statement demanding Israel “retract these plans immediately and end its expansion of settlements in the West Bank.”
The statement called the decision “even more concerning” at a time of “unprecedented levels of violence by settlers against civilians, and serious restrictions on the Palestinian economy.” It also warned businesses that bidding on the tenders risked “involving themselves in serious breaches of international law.”
What is on offer
Israeli group Peace Now said the housing ministry published the tender on August 18 and opened it for bids at once. Submissions are due by October 19, a week before Israeli elections on October 27. The group said the tender covers about a third of the planned E1 development, and accused the government of trying to lock in construction commitments before the vote.
E1 is a roughly 12-square-kilometre parcel just east of Jerusalem, between the city and the settlement of Maale Adumim. Israel approved the plan last August, with around 3,400 homes in total. Building there would further cut east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied and annexed and where most residents are Palestinian, off from the rest of the West Bank. The UN secretary general has called the plan an “existential threat” to a contiguous Palestinian state.
London and Jerusalem trade words
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot called the tenders “unacceptable” and said they “would seriously undermine the viability of the two-State solution.”
Britain went further. Ed Miliband, its top diplomat, demanded an end to the project on Wednesday, and London summoned Israel’s charge d’affaires. Miliband said he passed the message directly to Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar. The British government also promised “a comprehensive set of measures” in the coming weeks, including sanctions on people involved in what it called illegal settlement expansion.
Saar rejected Miliband’s statement “outright,” along with “the patronising tone of his words.” He wrote on X that “the Jewish people have the right to live throughout the Land of Israel, just as the British have the right to live in London and throughout the United Kingdom.” He accused the UK of blaming only Israel while ignoring Palestinian extremism, which he said was fuelling antisemitic attacks on British Jews, and vowed that “Israel will defend its rights, its interests and its people.”
Last year, Britain and France were among 21 countries that condemned the approval of E1 as a violation of international law. About three million Palestinians live in the West Bank outside east Jerusalem, along with around 500,000 Israeli settlers. Settler violence against Palestinians has risen since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
