Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Wednesday the approval of 3,401 new housing units in the so-called E1 area near Ma’ale Adumim in Judea and Samaria.
The E1 project has been delayed for decades due to international opposition, led by previous United States administrations. (E1 is actually an unbuilt area within the municipal boundary of Ma’ale Adumim.)
“Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan that we began implementing with the establishment of the government,” said Smotrich, who also serves as a second minister in the Israeli Defense Ministry, with responsibility for civilian matters in Judea and Samaria.
“After decades of international pressure and freezes, we are breaking conventions and connecting Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem. This is Zionism at its best—building, settling and strengthening our sovereignty in the Land of Israel,” the minister continued.
Regavim, an Israeli NGO focused on land issues, welcomed the announcement, calling it “a critical step for Jerusalem and for the State of Israel as a whole.”
‘More secure for generations’
Israel Ganz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and the Yesha Council umbrella group, hailed the step on Thursday as a “historic morning, taking us another step toward the vision of sovereignty.
“The equation has changed, and we are changing reality with our own hands, one home and one community at a time, realizing our historic right to the land of our forefathers,” the regional leader continued.
“Thanks to the reality we are creating today, the city of Jerusalem and the State of Israel will be more secure for generations we will leave behind,” Ganz’s statement added, thanking Smotrich, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Ma’ale Adumim Mayor Guy Yifrach said the E1 neighborhood would be built “in accordance with the vision of Israel’s leaders: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who personally drew its borders and emphasized its strategic importance.”
The E1 building plan covers an area of 12 square kilometers (4.63 square miles) between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim—mostly state land to the north and west of the Jerusalem-Ma’ale Adumim road. With the plan, Israel seeks to link Ma’ale Adumim—established east of Jerusalem more than 40 years ago and now home to 40,000 residents—to the Mount Scopus ridge, which lies within Jerusalem’s jurisdiction.
Area E1 is intended to contain three neighborhoods, as well as zones for commerce, industry and hotels.
Smotrich told attendees at an event in Ma’ale Adumim on Thursday that Netanyahu supported his plan to connect the city to eastern Jerusalem. “He backs me up in everything concerning Judea and Samaria, and is letting me create the revolution,” Smotrich said at the Yesha Council event.
“Anyone in the world today who tries to recognize a Palestinian state will get our answer on the ground. Not in documents, not in decisions or declarations, but in facts. Facts of homes, neighborhoods, roads and Jewish families building lives,” the finance minister continued.
“They will talk about a Palestinian dream, and we will continue to build a Jewish reality. This reality buries the idea of a Palestinian state once and for all, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize,” he said.
Smotrich urged Netanyahu to extend Israel’s sovereignty to Judea and Samaria to ensure that at the U.N. General Assembly annual general debate in September, “the hypocritical leaders in Europe will have nothing left to recognize.”
Judea and Samaria’s Jewish population stands at 529,455, according to a report published on Jan. 1 that cited data from the Interior Ministry.
The natural growth of the region’s residents is expected to result in a population in excess of 600,000 by 2030, almost 700,000 by 2035 and more than 1 million by 2050, the report added.
