European ambassadors hold Jerusalem meeting with Israel over E1 fears
Fearful of the harmful impact the E1 West Bank housing project could have on the two-state solution, eight European ambassadors met with Israel’s Deputy National Security Adviser Reuven Azar on Thursday in Jerusalem.
Ambassadors from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom participated in the meeting.
After the meeting, German Ambassador to Israel Susanne Wasum-Rainer tweeted that she and her counterparts “stated their grave concerns about announcements of the Israeli authorities regarding new settlement units in the occupied West Bank & East-Jerusalem.”
She listed three projects in particular: a plan for 3,500 new homes in an unbuilt area of Ma’aleh Adumim, dubbed E1; and two Jewish housing projects in east Jerusalem – a new neighborhood in Givat Hamatos and the expansion of the Har Homa neighborhood.
Israel maintains that the E1 project, Givat Hamatos and Har Homa are necessary to ensure a united Jerusalem. Palestinians and the international community fear the projects doom the possibility of a two-state solution using pre-1967 lines.
The E1 project and Givat Hamatos were frozen under pressure from the Obama administration and have not been advanced during the last three years of the Trump administration.
All three projects are located in areas of Jerusalem and the West Bank that would be part of Israel under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.
Meanwhile, the Austrian parliament on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution that condemns the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as antisemitic and urges that it not be supported. The Foreign Ministry thanked Austria.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week pushed forward with all three construction projects, prior to the March 2 election. He made public statements about the projects that were followed by concrete actions.
The left-wing group Peace Now reported that two plans were submitted to the Civil Administration with regard to the 3,500 unit, which sets in motion a 60-day period for objections to be filed.
Yesha Council director-general Yigal Dilmoni tweeted a copy of the submission so that all those “who feared and worried” it would not happen could see that progress had occurred. But with regard to E1 and Har Homa, a lengthy bureaucratic process lies ahead.
Yesha Council head and Jordan Valley Regional Council chairman David Elhayani said the deposit was “a strategic victory for the State of Israel.”
In addition, a tender was published earlier this week for 1,077 Jewish homes in Givat Hamatos. Overall, the Givat Hamatos project would include 3,000 Jewish homes and 1,000 Arab ones. The Har Homa plan calls for an additional 2,200 Jewish homes.
On Wednesday, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov issued a statement about the matter.
“All settlements are illegal under international law and remain a substantial obstacle to peace,” he said. “If the E1 plan were to be implemented, it would sever the connection between northern and southern West Bank, significantly undermining the chances for establishing a viable and contiguous Palestinian state as part of a negotiated two-state solution.”
“I urge the Israeli authorities to refrain from such unilateral actions that fuel instability and further erode the prospects for resuming Palestinian-Israeli negotiations on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements,” Mladenov said.
Peace Now reported that Defense Ministry officials met with planners last week to push expansion work on a bypass road for Palestinians to travel between the southern and northern parts of the West Bank without going through Ma’aleh Adumim. The northern part of that road was opened last year.
On Thursday, the IDF Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria advanced plans for 1,800 new settler homes.
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett used the opportunity to tout his record of supporting the settlements.
“We authorized many [housing] units in the settlements, and we will continue to do so in the future,” he said.
Bennett made subtle digs at Netanyahu.
“We also have to act this way when it comes to sovereignty,” he said.
Bennett and Netanyahu are vying for right-wing votes in the March 2 election.
Bennett has accused Netanyahu of making promises he will never fulfill. He has pushed him in particular not to delay the application of sovereignty over West Bank settlements.
Netanyahu has a strong record of advancing settler housing projects since Trump entered office in 2017, but Bennett spoke as if he had just broken some new deadlock.
“For years it was explained to the settlers why everything [with regard to the building projects was] complicated and stuck in bureaucracy,” he said, adding that he was putting a stop to those kind of excuses.
“We are no longer in the discourse of evacuation and a freeze but in the mode of expansion and construction,” Bennett said. “Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is one of the building blocks of Zionism in the State of Israel. It is our pride. Instead of stopping it, we will continue to advance it.”
On the list of projects that were advanced was approval of a master plan for 620 homes in the Eli settlement. The move allows for the retroactive legalization of homes in the community and the advancement of other projects, except for those on private Palestinian property that are under adjudication by the High Court of Justice.
Benjamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz said: “This is a day of celebration for [Judea and Samaria]. The settlement of Eli can now develop, grow and prosper. The plan’s approval restores justice after many years of injustice to the hundreds of residents who legally purchased their homes.
“We expect the government to advance the regulation of additional neighborhoods in Eli that are not included in the approved master plan.”
The council also approved for deposit a plan for construction of a hi-tech industrial park with two million square meters of business space called Sha’ar Hashomron. It will be located off of Route 5 in the Samaria region of the West Bank. Space for educational buildings and a sports complex will also be attached to the project.
According to Peace Now, 1,036 of the homes were approved for deposit and another 703 were validated. This includes the 620 units in Eli, as well as 48 in Har Bracha and 73 in Givat Ze’ev.
Plans that were approved for deposit were: 534 units for the Shvut Rachel neighborhood of the Shiloh settlement; 156 for Tzofim; 110 homes for Elon Shvut; 106 for Ma’aleh Shomron; 105 for Nokdim; and 24 for Karnei Shomron.
Separately, 50 former European prime ministers and foreign ministers condemned Trump’s peace plan and warned it would create an apartheid-like situation in the West Bank.
Among those who signed the letter were former French prime minister and foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, former German foreign minister and vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, former British foreign secretary Jack Straw and former Irish president Mary Robinson.
Other signatories included former ministers or leaders of Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Luxembourg, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Benjamin Weinthal and Reuters contributed to this report.