In a nod to the United States, Israeli delayed until June 12 a hearing about the pending construction of 3,412 settler homes in E1, an unbuilt neighborhood of the West Bank’s Ma’aleh Adumim settlement.
An objections hearing on the plan had initially been scheduled for March 27, as the final bureaucratic step before the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria is slated to issue its final approval for the project.
Objections to the settlements
The International community and the United States have long objected to the plan, first designed in the early 1990s, believed it would thwart the creation of a Palestinian state.
Israeli has therefore repeatedly delayed the project advancing it only very slowly over the last decades, but the bureaucratic process is nearing its end.
At the Aqaba summit last month, Israeli promised not to make any announcements with regard to new settlement housing projects for four months.
On Sunday it appeared to make good on its word when the Higher Planning Council announced that the hearing had been delayed.
It did not so when Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was in the United States. Smotrich is also a minister in the Defense Ministry and has oversight on the Higher Planning Council. He has in the past opposed any delays in settlement plans.
The leftwing group Peace Now said that E1 is a “destructive plan that harms any chance for peace” with the Palestinians.
For years it has caused the international community to sharply criticize Israel, Peace Now explained, adding that its place is in the “dustbin of history.”
“Instead of postponing the hearing and waiting for a proper time, the government should shelve it,” Peace Now stated.