E1

E1, 4.5-square-mile (12-square-km) area of land in the West Bank, east of Jerusalem, that the Israeli government plans to develop as part of the Maʿale Adumim settlement and thereby connect one of its largest settlements to Jerusalem. Observers widely believe that construction on the site complicates the viability of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Proposal and complications

Maʿale Adumim was established in 1975, and, after the Israeli government earmarked the settlement for high-priority development, it became the first settlement in the West Bank to achieve city status in 1991. Plans to develop the E1 area were floated in 1994 by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who at the time was engaged in negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization on mutually agreed land swaps in an effort toward a two-state solution. The negotiations, part of the Oslo Accords framework, never resulted in a final agreement. They came to a virtual halt during the second intifada, a Palestinian uprising that was a direct response to Israeli assertions over East Jerusalem, which geographically and economically connects the northern and southern sections of the West Bank.

As a security measure during the second intifada, Israel began constructing a fence-and-concrete-wall barrier to separate Israel and its settlements from Palestinian areas in the West Bank. The barrier also separated Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem from the West Bank, and its planned route jutted well east of Jerusalem and deep into the West Bank. The proliferation of Israeli settlement activity also diminished the territorial contiguity between Palestinian areas and limited transportation and other shared infrastructure between them. The prospect of Israeli control over the E1 area grew increasingly contentious with these developments because it threatened to close off West Bank access to East Jerusalem and sever the connection between the northern and southern sections of the West Bank. The Israeli government raised the possibility of a road or tunnel for West Bank Palestinians to cut through and bypass its settlements, and in early 2025 it allocated funds to the construction of a bypass road it dubbed the “Fabric of Life.”

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Approval of construction

In 2003, as the peace process remained stalled, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed a plan to unilaterally withdraw Israeli forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip. To placate opposition from settlers, he prioritized the expansion of Maʿale Adumim as well as some other West Bank settlements. The Israeli government began development work in the E1 area, but the Palestinian Authority objected, and, under pressure from the United States, the work was frozen in 2005. In 2012 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revived plans for development in the E1 area in response to the United Nations recognizing Palestine as a nonmember state, but the plans were again shelved under international pressure. In August 2025, soon after France, the United Kingdom, and other countries announced plans to recognize Palestinian statehood in September, the Israeli government approved plans for construction in the E1 area. Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli cabinet minister responsible for settlement administration, said the move “erases the two-state delusion and consolidates the Jewish people’s hold on the heart of the Land of Israel.”