The Civil Administration canceled a scheduled hearing slated for Monday on a controversial plan – known as E1 – to construct 3,412 settler homes in an unbuilt area of the West Bank Ma’aleh Adumim settlement.
The move came just four days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reminded him of the importance of refraining from unilateral measures that could inflame tensions with the Palestinians.
Israel first advanced the plan when former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was in office, but it has moved forward slowly due to strong objections from the United States and the international community which believe that the project would harm the viability of a future Palestinian state.
The Right has advocated for the plan for a while
The Right has long advocated for the plan which it views as important for the future development of Ma’aleh Adumim and vital to ensuring Israel’s hold on a united Jerusalem.
The plan is nearing the end of a protracted bureaucratic process and is in the midst of a hearing process on objections to the plan after which it can return for final approval to the Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria.
The objections hearing by a Civil Administration subcommittee was first suspended in 2021 and then again in 2022 under direct pressure from the United States.
The right-wing NGO Regavim said it had sent a letter last week to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and key political figures urging them to prevent any further delays of the project.
“There is no dispute that the area east of Greater Jerusalem is a strategic area for the State of Israel. It ensures territorial continuity from the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley to Jerusalem and it connects the Ma’aleh Adumim area to the capital of Israel,” Regavim said.
“There is no dispute that the area east of Greater Jerusalem is a strategic area for the State of Israel."
Regavim
The left-wing group Peace Now said last week that “advancement of construction in E1 is another step in the current Israeli government’s actions, which since its establishment, has been establishing new settlements, returning settlers to the northern West Bank, and now working to create conditions for the annexation of the West Bank.”
The Ma’aleh Adumim municipality could not be reached for comment.