The ‘unacceptable’ E1 plan carries ‘authorized and reputational penalties’ for these collaborating, European nations warn.
Printed On 21 Aug 2026
Israeli plans to construct a serious new unlawful settlement that will cleave the occupied West Financial institution in two have provoked widespread condemnation from all over the world.
In a joint assertion issued on Thursday, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Norway referred to as Israel’s opening of building tenders for greater than 1,200 housing items underneath the E1 settlement project “unacceptable” and in violation of “the territorial contiguity of the Palestinian Territories”.
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The group warned of “authorized and reputational penalties” for individuals and urged Israel “to retract these plans instantly and finish its enlargement of settlements within the West Financial institution”.
“Not solely will they take us farther from peace, however they additional undermine Israel’s worldwide standing,” the assertion added.
The Egyptian Overseas Ministry additionally expressed its “full rejection of makes an attempt to entrench the established order by way of unlawful settlement enlargement” and referred to as on the worldwide group to “take critical steps to cease these violations”.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim wrote on social media that the plans “gravely undermine the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian homeland”.
Israel has deserted “even the pretence of searching for peace or respecting the need of the worldwide group”, he added.
The United Nations has additionally condemned the plan. The UN’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric stated the secretary-general was “deeply alarmed by the studies of latest unlawful Israeli settlement outposts within the occupied West Financial institution”, together with the brand new tenders.
Rising violence
Israeli settlements and outposts within the occupied territory are unlawful underneath worldwide regulation, however their growth has accelerated for the reason that begin of the Israeli authorities’s genocidal struggle on Gaza launched in October 2023.
The venture, slated to incorporate no less than 3,400 items, would join occupied East Jerusalem to the Maale Adumim settlement space on roughly 12 sq. kilometres (4.6sq miles) of Palestinian land.
The settlement would bisect the West Financial institution from north to south, slicing off the West Financial institution’s hyperlink to East Jerusalem, which for years Palestinians have cited as the popular capital of their future state.
Israel gave final approvals to the E1 plan final August, with hardline Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hailing it as “historic”.
“The Palestinian state is being erased from the desk not with slogans however with actions,” he boasted.
At the very least 21 international locations condemned the plans on the time.
Israel’s choice to maneuver ahead with the enlargement comes as rights teams warn of the mass displacement of Palestinians from the West Financial institution amid rising settler assaults and the expansion of unlawful settlements.
Analysis from the UN’s humanitarian physique has discovered that extra Palestinians had been forcibly displaced by settler assaults, demolitions and evictions within the first 4 months of 2026 than in all of 2025.
Dozens of Palestinian communities within the West Financial institution at the moment are vulnerable to erasure, Human Rights Watch stated in a current report.
Analysts have linked the scramble for settlements to Israel’s upcoming elections in October.
