E1 and the fight over Palestinian statehood

Few pieces of land carry as much weight as the 12 square kilometres known as E1. It is an unremarkable stretch of hillside on a map, but for critics of Israel’s settlement policy it is the place where the two-state solution could be decided without negotiation, vote, or treaty. E1 lies between occupied East Jerusalem and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc. That location is the point. Building there would create a continuous belt of Israeli construction across the central West Bank, cutting the northern part of the territory off from the south and further separating East Jerusalem from the rest of the Palestinian territory. The plan was originally envisaged at roughly 3,400 housing units and has now reached the tendering […]