Israeli Defense Ministry is planning to advance a housing project in the E1 Area of the West Bank, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.
This comes after the Israeli occupation government withdrew the plan in January amid international pressure, assuring the US Biden administration it would not move forward with the project.
The ministry body responsible for authorizing construction in the West Bank announced a meeting on July 18 to discuss objections to the programs that received initial approval, two projects totaling 3,412 settler units in the E1 area, according to i24 News.
The settlements would be built east of the so-called Ma’ale Adumim area, breaking the contiguity between the Palestinian neighborhoods of east Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the Palestinian towns of Ramallah and Bethlehem.
The E1 project was first approved by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in 2012 and put on hold for roughly eight years.
US Ambassador to the Zionist entity Tom Nides, claimed in March he had aggressively pushed Israeli government to withdraw the plan, saying, “[You] can’t stop everything” and have to “pick [your] battles,” but “E1 was a disaster. I went full bore on E1.”
Two Israeli and US officials told The Times of Israel in February that Tel Aviv assured Washington that it would not let the E1 construction occur.
The project’s renewal comes just weeks before US President Joe Biden is expected to visit the Zionist entity for the first time as president.
Source: Israeli media
