Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Thursday night that “there will probably be no Palestinian state,” as he signed an settlement to push forward with the controversial E1 settlement enlargement plan that can minimize throughout West Financial institution land Palestinians look for a state.
“We’re going to fulfill our promise that there will probably be no Palestinian state; this place belongs to us,” Netanyahu stated throughout a go to to the Ma’ale Adumim settlement within the West Financial institution, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, the place 1000’s of recent housing models could be added.
“We are going to safeguard our heritage, our land and our safety… We’re going to double the town’s inhabitants,” he added.
Netanyahu stated that the mission is about “realizing a imaginative and prescient… one thing very huge is going on right here.”
Final month, the E1 mission, which might bisect the West Financial institution and minimize it off from East Jerusalem, received final planning approval. Thursday’s signing ceremony was largely symbolic, however it allowed authorities to maneuver ahead with development.
The Civil Administration of the Protection Ministry accredited the plans, which might see 3,412 housing models in-built a brand new neighborhood of Maale Adumim on the western facet of the town, simply east of East Jerusalem. Whole funding within the mission, which can embody including roads and upgrading main infrastructure, is estimated at almost $1 billion.
View of the world of the deliberate E1 mission between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, seen August 21, 2025. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)
Advocates of a two-state resolution have argued for many years that the E1 mission would in impact divide the West Financial institution in two for its Palestinian inhabitants, sever Palestinian East Jerusalem from the West Financial institution, and severely hurt the long run viability of a Palestinian state — one thing celebrated by the federal government’s ministers.
Israel has lengthy had ambitions to construct on the roughly 12 sq. kilometer tract of land generally known as E1, however the plan had been stalled for years within the face of worldwide opposition.
Talking at Thursday’s ceremony, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich averred that Israel will quickly have fun the annexation of the West Financial institution.
“The prime minister informed me, ‘I’m staying right here to listen to what you must say, and I do know what you propose to say,’” stated Smotrich. “Prime minister, all of us, quickly, will thanks and congratulate and have fun collectively the applying of sovereignty all through Judea and Samaria,” he added, utilizing the biblical identify for the West Financial institution.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a ceremony in Ma’ale Adumim, within the West Financial institution, September 11, 2025, as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich seems to be on. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
A variety of right-wing ministers have known as in current weeks for the annexation of components or all the West Financial institution as a response to a number of Western governments, together with the UK and France, asserting that they intend to acknowledge the State of Palestine on the United Nations later this month.
Israeli NGO Peace Now, which displays settlement exercise within the West Financial institution, stated final week that infrastructure work in E1 might start inside a couple of months, and housing development inside a couple of yr.
It stated the E1 plan was “lethal for the way forward for Israel and for any likelihood of reaching a peaceable two-state resolution.”
The West Financial institution is residence to round three million Palestinians, in addition to about 500,000 Israeli settlers.
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
