In a sharp rebuke that amplifies global pushback against Israeli settlement expansion, four of Europe’s leading powers — France, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom — issued a joint statement Thursday demanding Israel immediately withdraw plans to construct over 1,200 new residential units as part of the contentious E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank. The development comes just days after Israeli housing authorities opened bidding for the construction contracts, marking the most significant step forward for the controversial initiative since it was first approved in August 2024.
The E1 project, which targets a 12-square-kilometer stretch of strategically located land between east Jerusalem and the large existing Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, has long drawn international condemnation for its geopolitical implications. If completed, the full 3,400-home development would permanently split east Jerusalem — which Israel annexed in 1980, a move not recognized by the majority of the international community, and which is majority-Palestinian inhabited — from the rest of the occupied West Bank. This geographic divide would eliminate the possibility of a contiguous, sovereign Palestinian state, a core foundation of the decades-long two-state solution framework for Middle East peace.
The European leaders’ joint statement emphasized that the timing of the new tenders makes the decision even more alarming, against a backdrop of skyrocketing settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and crippling economic restrictions that have severely harmed Palestinian livelihoods. The statement went further than many previous condemnations, issuing a direct warning to private businesses considering bidding on the project, cautioning that participation would put them at risk of complicity in serious violations of international law.
International pushback expanded quickly beyond the four major powers. Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot labeled the tender announcement “unacceptable,” echoing the global consensus that the project would irreparably damage any path to a viable two-state resolution. The United Nations Secretary-General has previously framed the E1 initiative as an “existential threat” to the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.
The United Kingdom has already taken unilateral action to signal its disapproval: On Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires to London to deliver a formal demand halting the project and all settlement expansion, and delivered the message directly to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in bilateral talks. The UK government also announced it would roll out a full package of punitive measures in the coming weeks, including targeted sanctions against individuals directly involved in illegal settlement expansion.
Israel has rejected the criticism outright, with Saar pushing back against Miliband’s statement in blunt terms Thursday. He called the British foreign secretary’s language patronizing, and argued that Jewish people hold an inherent right to live across all of what Israelis consider the Land of Israel, drawing a comparison to the right of British citizens to live anywhere across the United Kingdom. Saar further accused the UK of single-sided bias, claiming London only blames Israel while ignoring Palestinian extremism that he claims fuels rising antisemitic attacks targeting Britain’s Jewish community. He called the UK’s decision to confront Israel over the issue deeply damaging to bilateral relations, and pledged that “Israel will defend its rights, its interests and its people.”
Israeli peace advocacy NGO Peace Now, which first tracked the publication of the new tender, notes that the 1,200 units up for bid make up roughly one-third of the full E1 development. The housing ministry published the tender and opened bidding on August 18, with bid submissions due October 19 — just one week ahead of Israel’s scheduled national election on October 27. Peace Now has accused the current Israeli government of rushing to lock in binding construction commitments before the vote, to cement the project’s future regardless of the election’s outcome.
The current landscape of the West Bank has grown increasingly volatile in the months following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel from Gaza. Data from international and local monitors confirms that acts of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians have surged to unprecedented levels during this period. Today, the West Bank (excluding annexed east Jerusalem) is home to roughly 3 million Palestinians, alongside approximately 500,000 Israeli settlers who have established communities across the territory in developments widely considered illegal under international law. Israel enforces strict movement restrictions on West Bank Palestinians, who require special permits from Israeli authorities to cross checkpoints into east Jerusalem or sovereign Israeli territory.