Israel gave final approval on Wednesday to a settlement project in the heart of the occupied West Bank that supporters and critics alike say will deal a major blow to the contiguity of territory that Palestinians hope will be part of a future independent state.
The project, known as E1, was delayed for more than two decades, often following pressure by the United States. But the Trump administration has been far less critical of settlements than previous administrations, or most of the international community, which generally considers them to be illegal and obstacles to Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Roughly 500,000 Israeli settlers and about 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, where the Israeli military holds overriding control. Israeli troops regularly raid Palestinian cities and restrict the movement of Palestinians. While Israeli settlers who live in the West Bank can vote in Israeli elections, their Palestinian neighbors have no say in them.
Under the plan, around 3,400 additional settlement housing units would be built on one of the most sensitive tracts of real estate in the West Bank: E1, short for East One. The plot lies just east of Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians consider their capital.
Prospects for a functional Palestinian state have been dim for years, becoming more so with each new Israeli settlement, road or barrier, and it has never been clear what its boundaries would be.
But human rights groups and European countries say building the E1 settlements there would increasingly bisect the central West Bank, making the possibility of a future Palestinian state there even more tenuous. They argue it would also hem in mainly Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, preventing them from growing into the West Bank.
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The post Israel Approves West Bank Settlements, a Blow to Palestinian Statehood Hopes appeared first on New York Times.
