Israel on 20 August gave final approval for the long-delayed E1 settlement plan, authorising construction of roughly 3,400 homes on a 1,200-hectare tract east of Jerusalem. The decision will extend the Ma’ale Adumim settlement toward the city, creating a contiguous Israeli corridor between the settlement bloc and Jerusalem proper. Planning experts and the United Nations warn the project will effectively bisect the occupied West Bank, forcing Palestinians travelling between Ramallah in the north and Bethlehem in the south onto lengthy detours and undermining the territorial contiguity required for a viable Palestinian state. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who oversees settlement policy, welcomed the move as a concrete step toward “erasing” Palestinian statehood. The United States, European Union and several Arab governments had urged Israel to shelve the project, noting that international law deems settlements in occupied territory illegal. The E1 plan had been frozen for years under U.S. pressure; the go-ahead followed the rejection of the final legal petitions on 6 August. Officials say infrastructure work could begin within months and building within about a year. More than 700,000 Israelis already reside in settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas captured in 1967 that the Palestinians claim for a future state.