https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/...estinian-state

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he will approve thousands of housing units in a highly controversial and long-delayed illegal settlement project in the occupied West Bank, saying the move “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.

Smotrich on Thursday said he would approve tenders to build more than 3,000 homes in the E1 area settlement project that would connect Jerusalem and the existing illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, located several kilometres to the east.

“This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise,” he said. “Anyone in the world who tries today to recognise a Palestinian state will receive an answer from us on the ground,” he said.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the new settlement plan an extension of crimes of genocide, displacement and annexation, and an echo of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements regarding what he called “Greater Israel”.

In a statement before the announcement, Smotrich, who is also a minister in Israel’s Ministry of Defence with broad responsibility for approving settlements in the occupied West Bank, hailed the project as “Zionism at its best”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgdzxpkdd7o

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said plans to build more than 3,000 homes in a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank will "bury the idea of a Palestinian state".

The so-called E1 project between Jerusalem and the Maale Adumim settlement has been frozen for decades amid fierce opposition internationally. Building there would effectively cut off the West Bank from occupied East Jerusalem.

Smotrich said it would thwart the idea of a Palestinian state "because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise".

Settlements are considered illegal under international law and form one of the most contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians.

About 700,000 settlers live in approximately 160 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now. It is land Palestinians seek for a future independent state.

"After decades of international pressure and freezes, we are breaking conventions and connecting Maale Adumim to Jerusalem," Smotrich said.

"This is Zionism at its best - building, settling and strengthening our sovereignty in the Land of Israel."

It follows declarations in recent days by a growing number of countries of their intention to recognise a Palestinian state in coming months, which Israel has denounced.