Israel’s decision to move forward with building plans in the strategically sensitive E1 corridor, located between Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank and Jerusalem, is drawing mounting international criticism. Britain has announced sanctions, while 11 other countries are threatening or weighing trade restrictions targeting Jewish communities in the disputed territory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said last month it would issue tenders for the first 1,400 homes out of a planned total of roughly 3,400 units in E1. The 4.6-square-mile area would strengthen the built-up link between Ma’ale Adumim, a Judean Desert city of about 40,000 residents, and Israel’s capital.
The proposal has been met with sharp opposition from European governments, with Britain’s left-wing ruling party announcing sanctions on Tuesday.
Israel recently announced new construction plans for land in the E1 area. (The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.)
U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said products from Judea and Samaria would be banned, arguing that London “believes the unlawfulness of the occupation should be reflected in the economic relationship we choose to have with the occupied territories.”
Foreign ministers from 11 other nations — Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden — issued a joint statement Tuesday saying they plan to impose, or are actively considering, trade restrictions on goods produced by Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
Doron Spielman, international spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, told News Outlet that the E1 initiative has been in progress for years. He noted that the project is situated in Area C of the West Bank, which the Oslo Accords place under full Israeli security and civilian control.
This photograph was taken from the E1 corridor, an area in the West Bank, and shows vehicles traveling along the highway near the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, Sept. 8, 2026. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)
“The Israeli government believes E1 is the natural extension of the area of Ma’ale Adumim, which is an area where Jews live freely within 3 miles of our biblical capital, Jerusalem. I don’t understand why the world is so focused on a hilltop in the middle of Judea, which is the biblical national homeland of the Jewish people,” he said.
Spielman stressed that “at no point in time, in any agreement that Israel ever made, was E1 ever slated to become part of a Palestinian state.”
“E1 doesn’t affect Palestinian freedom of movement; that’s a myth. … Palestinian propaganda is trying to create an international issue about something that is very basic regarding Jews living in their homeland,” he added.
Old City, Jerusalem view (Planet One Images/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
While not explicitly commenting on E1, a State Department spokesperson told News Outlet that, as President Donald Trump has made clear, the United States does not support the annexation of the West Bank.
“Such actions could be counterproductive to the president’s comprehensive plan to end the conflict in Gaza and undermine our broader efforts to achieve regional peace and stability,” the spokesperson said.
Ashraf al-Ajrami, a former Palestinian Authority minister of Prisoners Affairs, told News Outlet there is no scenario in which the Palestinian Authority would agree to construction in E1.
“The whole international community refutes this plan because they understand the objective of it. It’s not a plan that helps settlers to grow; it’s a plan to destroy the hope of having a two-state solution. It is the opposite of the Palestinian national rights of self-determination and statehood,” he said.
“The Israeli government has ignored all the ultimatums from the European Union and even the objections from the American administration up to this point. They will start to build the units merely to divide the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and cut the contiguity between East Jerusalem and our villages in the area.”
Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren told News Outlet the E1 project is controversial because the U.S. and other governments that support a two-state solution believe construction there would divide the West Bank and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
The West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria, is home to some 500,000 Israelis. (Mahmoud Illean/AP)
“The Oslo Accords do not prohibit Israeli settlement construction, nor do they stipulate that the accords’ outcome must be a two-state solution,” he said.
“Therefore, this is not a violation of the Oslo Accords. It may violate the spirit of the accords, but there have been many thousands of violations of their spirit. The Second Intifada was a violation of the spirit of the Oslo Accords,” he added, referring to the Palestinian terror campaign against Israel from 2000 to 2005, which was marked by suicide bombings targeting civilians.
Naomi Kahn, international director of Regavim, an NGO dedicated to protecting Israel’s national lands, resources and the rule of law, told News Outlet the Palestinian Authority made the plan controversial 30 years ago when it approached the U.S. administration at the time.
“The Rabin government had actually announced plans to develop the Ma’ale Adumim area, and the PA claimed that if Israel built in E1, it would spell the end of any possibility of a Palestinian state,” she said.
While that claim is false in physical terms, Kahn said, it has carried political significance because the PA has made E1 a battleground and involved international actors from the outset.
Israeli soldiers patrol a street while deployed during an operation in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Aug. 13, 2026. (Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)
“E1 has been at the heart of efforts to essentially globalize the push to remove the State of Israel from all of Judea and Samaria,” she said.
Kahn noted that some of the countries pushing for sanctions against Israel have spent the past 20 years actively financing and supporting illegal Arab construction in E1, while Palestinian Authority outposts have increasingly mushroomed throughout Judea and Samaria.
She said Regavim first went to court about 16 years ago over the illegal construction of these outposts and has since won six times.
“Still, nothing has happened,” said Kahn, whose organization was recently among four Israeli civil society organizations sanctioned by the European Union over allegations that they support “settler violence” and undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.
European Union-sponsored structures in Area C on the West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria. (Regavim.)
Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told News Outlet E1 is a critical security corridor that would help protect Jerusalem from Palestinian terrorism and encroachment into areas under Israeli security and administrative control under the Oslo Accords.
Diker said Israel is wary of another invasion following Oct. 7, this time from Palestinian Arab towns, cities and villages across Judea and Samaria.
“There are tens of thousands of machine guns, other weapons and ammunition smuggled into Palestinian villages, towns and cities, and there is deep concern that, particularly in communities in the E1 area, they could cut off the road between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, creating another existential threat,” Diker said.
For the international community, Diker said, the political disagreement over E1 is rooted in the period when Israel and the Palestinian Authority were expected to negotiate the final status of a peace agreement.
“Since then, we’ve had the terror war of 2000, followed by four terror wars waged by Hamas, culminating in Oct. 7. The geopolitical and security reality has completely shifted, but the international community’s mindset has not. For them, it’s a political issue; for us, it’s an existential one,” he added.
