Israel approved plans on Wednesday to build on a plot of land measuring about 12 square kilometers (five square miles) known as “E1” east of Jerusalem. The foreign ministers, including those from Australia, Canada, and Italy, stated: “We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms.” The statement was also signed by Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden, as well as the Chief of Foreign Affairs of the European Commission.
The statement noted that Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the plan “would make a two-state solution impossible by dividing any Palestinian state and restricting Palestinian access to Jerusalem.” In response, the foreign ministers stated: “This does not benefit the Israeli people, but threatens to undermine security, fuels violence and instability, and takes us further from peace. The Israeli government still has the opportunity to halt the E1 plan,” they added. “We encourage them to swiftly retract this plan.”
The plan aims to build about 3,400 homes on this highly sensitive land located between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. All Israeli settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law. The Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah, criticized this latest move, as did the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres. Britain summoned the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, to the Foreign Office on Thursday to protest the decision.
The British Foreign Office stated: “If these settlement plans are implemented, they would constitute a flagrant violation of international law and would split the future Palestinian state into two, decisively undermining the two-state solution.”
