Israel has granted final approval for the long-stalled E1 settlement project, a scheme for roughly 3,400 housing units intended to link the Ma’ale Adumim settlement to Jerusalem. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, announcing the decision after a Defence Ministry planning commission meeting on 20 August, said the move "erases the Palestinian state from the table." The construction corridor would bisect the occupied West Bank, severing the last land bridge between its northern and southern sections and further isolating East Jerusalem. First proposed in the 1990s and repeatedly frozen under U.S. and European pressure, the plan could see infrastructure work start within a few months and building commence in about a year, according to Israeli watchdog Peace Now. International reaction has been swift. France had already called the project a "grave violation of international law" on 16 August and urged Israel to abandon it. After the final green light, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded the decision be reversed, warning it would "drive a stake through the heart of the two-state solution." Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy and a German government spokesperson issued similar objections, calling the move a flagrant breach of international law. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the approval as entrenching “isolated cantons” and undermining any prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state. Most countries deem West Bank settlements illegal; Israel disputes this, citing historical claims and security needs. The approval comes as some Western governments weigh diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, heightening tensions around the stalled peace process.