RAMALLAH, August 21, 2025 (WAFA) – Over 20 states condemned on Thursday the Israeli occupation authorities’ approval of the E1 colonial settlement plan in the occupied West Bank.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of 21 countries, as well as the EU, condemned Israel's E1 settlement plan and called for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms.

“The decision by the Israeli Higher Planning Committee to approve plans for settlement construction in the E1 area, East of Jerusalem, is unacceptable and a violation of international law,” the foreign ministers of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom said in a press statement.

They warned that the decision “brings no benefits to the Israeli people. Instead, it risks undermining security and fuels further violence and instability, taking us further away from peace.”

“The Government of Israel still has an opportunity to stop the E1 plan going any further. We encourage them to urgently retract this plan,” they added.

They affirmed that any “unilateral action by the Israeli government undermines our collective desire for security and prosperity in the Middle East.”

They urged the Israeli government to “stop settlement construction in line with UNSC Resolution 2334 and remove their restrictions on the finances of the Palestinian Authority.”

The Israeli occupation authorities have approved the construction of the E1 colonial settlement project in the occupied West Bank, in a move that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described as “erasing” a Palestinian state “not with slogans but with actions”.

“The Palestinian state is being erased from the table, not with slogans but with actions. Every settlement, every neighbourhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea,” Smotrich said.

The new project involves the building of 3,400 new colonial units on occupied Palestinian territory. The majority of them will be built near the existing Maale Adumim colony, in an area that aims to connect colonies in the occupied West Bank with occupied East Jerusalem.

The plan also includes 342 units in a new settlement in Asael, in the south of the West Bank.

K.F.