Israel’s far-right finance minister has announced a contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which Palestinians and rights groups worry will scuttle plans for a future Palestinian state by effectively cutting the West Bank into two separate parts.
“This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise,” Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Thursday
“Anyone in the world who tries today to recognise a Palestinian state — will receive an answer from us on the ground.”
Development in E1, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, has been under consideration for more than two decades, but was frozen due to pressure from the United States during previous administrations.
On Thursday, Smotrich praised US President Donald Trump and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee as “true friends of Israel as we have never had before”.
The E1 plan has not yet received its final approval, which is expected next week. It includes about 3,300 homes to expand the settlement of Maale Adumim, according to Peace Now, a group that tracks settlement activity in the West Bank.
While some bureaucratic steps remain, if the process moves quickly, construction of homes could start in about a year.
International community largely views West Bank settlements as illegal
Most of the international community views Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and its military occupation over the region since 1967, as illegal.
According to the United Nations, these settlements are deemed illegal by international law, as the Geneva Convention dictates that an occupying force cannot relocate its civilian population into the territories it occupies.
Israel denies that settlements are illegal under international law, as it considers the West Bank to be disputed territory, not occupied territory.
Palestinians fear the settlement building in the West Bank — which has sharply intensified since the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that led to the Gaza war — will rob them of any chance to build a state of their own in the area.
Settler violence has skyrocketed, from destruction of olive groves and cutting water and electricity in communities, to incendiary attacks on Christian holy sites.
Earlier this year, Australia, alongside Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom, applied sanctions against Smotrich, as well as Israeli security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over their role in inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said at the time the pair had played a role in “serious human rights violations and abuses relating to Israeli settler violence in the West Bank”.
Wong said the two were “the most extreme proponents of the unlawful and violent settlement enterprise”.
Rights groups swiftly condemned the E1 plan.
Peace Now called it “deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution” that was “guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed”.
There was no immediate statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the broader government.
Smotrich’s popularity has fallen in recent months, with polls showing his party would not win a single seat if parliamentary elections were held today.
The Palestinian foreign ministry called the new settlement plan an “extension of the crimes of genocide, displacement and annexation”.
Israel has long rejected accusations of genocide and rights abuses and said it is acting in its own defence.
The announcement comes as the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries condemned Netanyahu’s statement in an interview on Tuesday that he was “very” attached to the vision of a Greater Israel.
He did not elaborate, but supporters of the idea believe that Israel should control not only the occupied West Bank but parts of Arab countries.
About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognised by most countries, but has not formally extended sovereignty over the West Bank.
The UN and most world powers say settlement expansion has eroded the viability of a two-state solution by fragmenting Palestinian territory.
Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area, and says the settlements provide strategic depth and security.
