Peace Now warns of de facto annexation as E1 planning
The E1 project was first advanced by former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and then frozen as a result of US and international pressure.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFIr Amim researcher Aviv Tatarsky on the E1 hilltop. (photo credit: TOVAH LAZAROFF)
Israeli promotion of plans for 3,412 settler homes in the unbuilt and contentious area of the West Bank Ma’aleh Adumim settlement known as E1 continues and is a form of “de facto annexation,” according to Peace Now executive director Shaqued Morag.“The government has continued to advance de facto annexation,” she told a small group of activists, politicians and reporters on Sunday as she stood on the primarily sandy E1 hilltop.Both the left-wing NGOs Peace Now and Ir Amim led a joint tour to the area to highlight continued government settlement activity even during the COVID-19 pandemic, including in E1.Ir Amim researcher Aviv Tatarsky said there was an active objection period for E1 building before the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria.The objection period for two plans totaling 3,412 settler homes would end on August 18, Hagit Ofran of Peace Now later told The Jerusalem Post. The two groups plan to file an objection to the plan and have urged other opponents to do so as well.The diplomatic process to annex portions of the West Bank to sovereign Israel appears to be frozen, Morag told the group during the tour. There were diplomatic and Palestinian objections as well as lack of internal Israeli public support for annexation, she said.The government has understood that “the public does not buy that during the COVID-19 crisis [annexation] has to happen,” Morag said.The E1 project was first advanced by former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and then frozen as a result of US and international pressure.Until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began to speak of annexing all West Bank settlements, and the US philosophically sanctioned the move by including such a plan in its peace deal, E1 construction was viewed as the untouchable third rail of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The Palestinians had long argued E1 construction would make their future state unviable because it would not allow for contiguous development.Israel has contended that E1 building is necessary both for its own housing growth and to protect a unified Jerusalem.Ma’aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel has insisted that the project is necessary to ensure the future development of his city.The international community has long sided with the Palestinians on E1, with the EU at times hinting at repercussions should Israel move forward with the project.Until the Trump administration, the US has also opposed the move. In February, during the height of his reelection campaign, Netanyahu allowed for an E1 construction plan to be deposited to the Higher Planning Council. That was followed in March by former defense minister Naftali Bennett’s advancement of work on an E1 bypass route, known as the “fabric of life road,” or “sovereignty road,” by which Palestinians could travel.Movement on the plan was delayed until recently due to COVID-19. But proceedings on the matter have resumed.Tatarsky said objections must be technical and not diplomatic. At issue in particular is the impact on the area’s Bedouin, including the herding village of Kassarat, which has 36 families, Ofran said.The Bedouin would have to be uprooted to make way for the plan, she said.The territory has been designated as state land and should be allocated to the Palestinian and Bedouin residents, Ofran said.
