The occupied Palestinian territories refer to the areas of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, conquered by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. Although Jordan renounced its claims to the West Bank in 1988 and Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005, the West Bank and East Jerusalem remain under strict Israeli control.
According to international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, an occupying power cannot transfer its own civilian population into occupied territories. For this reason, the international community, including the International Court of Justice, considers Israeli settlement activity in these areas to be illegal and in violation of international law.
Over three million Palestinians live under military rule, while more than 700,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem enjoy full rights. The use of segregated roads, such as the “Apartheid Road,” where two populations share the same space at “different elevations, never to meet,” is the physical manifestation of the Israeli colonial project.
It is in this historical and legal context that the controversial E1 plan is now being reactivated.
After more than two decades of being frozen due to intense international pressure, the Israeli government has reactivated the controversial E1 (East One) settlement plan, a project that analysts call a deliberate move to end the possibility of a Palestinian state. The plan, which involves the construction of about 3,500 housing units, focuses on a strategic 12-square-kilometer corridor located between East Jerusalem and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement. If implemented, this spatial development would create a physical barrier, separating the northern West Bank from the southern West Bank.
The plan was first conceived in 1995 by Yitzhak Rabin, and the master plan (Plan No. 420/4) was approved in 1999. Despite this, its implementation was repeatedly blocked due to opposition from the international community, particularly the United States, Europe, and other actors, who considered it a “flagrant breach of international law.” As early as 2002, the then Israeli Minister of Defense committed to the U.S. administration not to implement the plan. The project was also put on hold after an attempted revival in 2012, which was blocked at the last minute by an order from the Prime Minister’s Office.
For its part, the Israeli government justifies the plan as a matter of security and urban development. Its supporters consider it a vital element of the “Metropolitan Jerusalem” concept, which aims to ensure urban continuity between the city and its surrounding Jewish communities. From this perspective, construction in E1 is necessary to provide “strategic depth” for the defense of Jerusalem against a potential “eastern front” and to prevent the city from returning to a “border-town status.” The Israeli strategy also aims to counteract a competing “Palestinian continuity” that could emerge in this crucial area.
However, the project has been met with near-unanimous international condemnation. The United Nations has stated that the initiative poses an “existential threat” to the two-state solution and is a “violation of international law.” The UN Human Rights Office has even stated that the transfer of an occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory is a “war crime.” The European Union, the United Kingdom, and several Arab nations have urged Israel to “desist,” emphasizing that the plan would irreparably undermine the prospects for peace. The position of the United States, historically the main brake on such projects, has been more ambiguous, with the Trump administration showing “far less concern” and the Biden administration refraining from “any criticism” of the latest approval.
Another critical aspect of the plan is its humanitarian consequences. The project directly threatens the existence of 18 Palestinian Bedouin communities and indirectly all 46 communities in the central West Bank, with the goal of “emptying the eastern borders of Palestinian presence.” According to human rights organizations, since 2009 the E1 plan has already affected over 2,657 people, with 842 individuals, including 840 children, forced to leave their homes. Settler violence, the demolition of residential and essential community structures, such as sanitation facilities, power generators, and animal pens, and land confiscation have created a “coercive environment” that is leading to the forced displacement of these communities, compromising their traditional pastoral way of life. Related resettlement plans would force them into “forced urbanization,” which has already led to a “regression of their lives.”
To strengthen its position, Israel has developed a segregated road network like the “Fabric of Life,” also known as Route 4370, which analysts call the “Apartheid Road.” This road, divided by a concrete wall, cost about $91 million and allows Israeli settlers to travel seamlessly between Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem, while forcing Palestinians to take lengthy detours that can last for hours, passing through several checkpoints. This dual-track system, which supporters call a “sovereignty road,” allows the Israeli government to maintain control over the territory and consolidate de facto annexation.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has openly stated that the plan’s approval is a response to countries that are recognizing a Palestinian state. “The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions,” Smotrich said, adding that every new housing unit is “another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea.” The approval is seen as part of a “strategic program to bury the possibility of a Palestinian state and to effectively annex the West Bank.” This explicit language has alarmed the international community, which fears that the revival of the E1 plan, which occurred in a context of “ongoing war in Gaza and reduced international oversight,” signals a new, and more dangerous, phase of the conflict, one in which historical obstacles to peace are permanently eliminated through facts on the ground.
Ultimately, the E1 plan is a chilling reminder of a continuously expanding “apartheid” system that undermines not only Palestinian aspirations but also the fundamental principles of international law. The advancement of the E1 plan, despite near-total international condemnation, demonstrates a complete disregard for Palestinian human dignity and rights, revealing an aggressive strategy of de facto annexation that operates with the explicit goal of burying the possibility of a Palestinian state, one nail at a time.
Dan ROMEO