JERUSALEM, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Thursday that "there will never be a Palestinian state" as he signed an agreement to fast-track construction in the contentious E1 area of the occupied West Bank, a project the international community has long warned could shatter prospects for Palestinian statehood.
The land, a corridor east of Jerusalem between the city and the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, is seen as especially sensitive because construction there would sever East Jerusalem from the northern West Bank, undermining territorial contiguity for a future Palestinian state.
First proposed in the 1990s, the E1 plan has long been frozen due to opposition inside Israel and abroad. Netanyahu pushed it forward in 2012 and revived it again ahead of the 2020 election.
The agreement was signed on Thursday during Netanyahu's visit to Ma'ale Adumim, the largest Israeli settlement in the West Bank. "There will never be a Palestinian state! This place is ours," he said at the ceremony.
The agreement, signed between Netanyahu's government and the Ma'ale Adumim municipality, is intended to accelerate development of new housing projects in the settlement and the adjacent E1 area.
It includes a government commitment of about 3 billion shekels (roughly 900 million U.S. dollars) for infrastructure to support some 7,600 housing units, about 3,400 of them in E1, according to the Construction and Housing Ministry.
When construction permits for the project were approved in August, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the plan was intended to block the creation of a Palestinian state. "Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state," he said.
The move is expected to further inflame tensions in the West Bank, where violence has surged since the Gaza war began in October 2023. Israeli strikes and gunfire have killed more than 64,000 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities, while much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble and famine has set in.
More than 720,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, alongside about 3.3 million Palestinians. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, including a July 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice that declared Israel's occupation unlawful. They are widely viewed by Palestinians and much of the international community as a major obstacle to peace. ■
