Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich announced on Thursday morning that he is approving the construction of 3,515 housing units in the E1 neighborhood, which will connect Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem.

The E1 plan has been frozen for over 20 years due to international pressure since it thwarts Arab territorial continuity between Beit Lechem and Ramallah, preventing the establishment of a “Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem.”

The plan outlines the addition of 3,515 housing units in the Tzipor Midbar neighborhood of Ma’ale Adumim, bringing the total number of new units to 6,916. The new units are expected to bring 35,000 new residents to the city, doubling the population.

Speaking later on Thursday at a press briefing announcing the plan, Smotrich said, “Anyone in the world today who tries to recognize a Palestinian state will receive our answer on the ground—not with documents, decisions, or declarations, but with facts: homes, neighborhoods, roads, and Jewish families building their lives. They will speak of a Palestinian dream—and we will continue building a Jewish reality, a reality that buries the idea of a Palestinian state once and for all—because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize.”

“I call to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: The time has come to apply Israeli sovereignty in Yehudah and Shomron—to forever remove from the agenda the idea of dividing the land and ensure that by September, the hypocritical leaders of Europe will not have anything to recognize.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)