With the world’s attention focused on Gaza, events in the West Bank have been somewhat overlooked since the start of the war. However, Israel’s decision to authorize a new neighborhood of 3,400 apartments in E1 shifted the focus, albeit briefly, back to Judea and Samaria, the biblical homeland, west of the River Jordan.
The E in E1 stands for “east.” The area consists of a few barren hilltops directly east of Jerusalem’s urban sprawl, marking the start of the Judean Desert – the last available stretch of land that can be developed, adjacent to Israel’s capital.
All of E1 lies within the municipal boundaries of Ma’aleh Adumim, one of the largest settlement cities in the West Bank, with a population approaching 45,000, directly east of Jerusalem. For Guy Yifrah, the city’s mayor, the decision was a case of better late than never.
“I was born in Ma’ale Adumim 43 years ago, and I want to continue to live here and raise my children here. And this is what I want to do as mayor – to ensure that the next generation here can build a home in the city where they were born. But unfortunately, we haven’t built a new neighborhood in 20 years, even though we need to build 800 new apartments each year just to keep up with natural growth,” he said.
The E1 project was initially approved almost 30 years ago when Yitzhak Rabin was prime minister; but fierce opposition from the international community, led by both Democratic and Republican administrations in Washington, prevented construction. Israel’s Judea and Samaria district police headquarters was transferred to an E1 hilltop, and a highway linking Jerusalem to Ma’ale Adumim was built, but the construction of residential neighborhoods was frozen.
The administration of President Donald Trump ended Washington’s opposition to settlement construction, and Israel’s fully right-wing government seized the diplomatic window of opportunity to end the freeze on E1 construction.
Some 21 Western nations condemned the Israeli decision as a “violation of international law,” and Palestinian Authority (PA) spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh warned that E1 construction would block the possibility of territorial contiguity for Palestinians between east Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Ramallah and lead to escalation, tension, and instability.
From a lookout point on the edge of Ma’ale Adumim, facing west toward Jerusalem, the mayor explained why E1 is the key to the city’s future development.
“As you can see, E1 covers the five kilometers as the crow flies between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim; and for 30 years, Israel was prevented from building here for political reasons. A narrative was accepted that E1 would cut a future Palestinian state in two, but it’s not true,” he said. “I oppose a Palestinian state, which I consider an existential threat to Israel. Even though E1 construction is essential for this city, the Palestinians would still be able to travel between the north and south West Bank using an existing highway 15 kilometers east of Ma’ale Adumim. So E1 would not prevent the establishment of a future Palestinian state, and the Palestinians would continue to have freedom of movement.”
This assertion contradicts the narrative of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the head of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, himself a West Bank settler, who pushed through the E1 project in his capacity as minister in the Defense Ministry responsible for West Bank civilian affairs.
Calling the development “the final nail in the coffin of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich said E1 “practically erases the two-state delusion and consolidates the Jewish people’s hold on the heart of the Land of Israel.”
But while supporters of a Jewish presence across Judea and Samaria welcomed the E1 breakthrough, Bedouins living in the vicinity are fearing the worst.
“Every minute, I expect the Israelis to come with an eviction order and we’ll have nowhere to go,” said 60-year-old Abdullah Arara, from the Jahalin Bedouin tribe, who resides with his two wives and 11 children in a small ramshackle encampment just off the main Jericho-Ramallah Road.
He said the tribe was evicted by the Israeli authorities from the northern Negev Desert, and he has lived in the Kasarat encampment for the last 45 years. But the community of 200, the majority of whom are children, lies in the E1 area.
Along with the expected eviction orders, the residents of all the Bedouin encampments in the area live in constant fear of attacks from settlers. Arara said his relatives in another encampment close to the settlement of Adam were recently attacked, and one had his arm broken.
“It’s gotten worse since this government came to power, and much worse since the start of the Gaza war,” he said, adding that the settlers are trying to force the Bedouins off the land. “But we can’t move to an apartment in a Palestinian town because we raise sheep. We need to stay on the land.”
Another member of the Jahalin tribe, Ali Arara, 65, is even more pessimistic. “The Israelis are already planning for our eviction. They won’t stop at E1; they also have plans for Jordan and Syria,” he said. “The condemnations by the international community are a waste of time. It won’t prevent the E1 construction.”
He said that Kasarat hasn’t been attacked by settlers, but the Bedouin keep away from two settler outposts on nearby hilltops in an effort to avoid trouble. “They claim we are squatting on the land illegally, but we were here before the settlers. The big settlement of Kfar Adumim down the road was built after we arrived.
“I don’t know what the future will bring, but it will be bad for everyone in the West Bank,” he predicted. “It’s all in the hands of Allah.”
The battle over E1 is being repeated across the West Bank.
A battle repeated throughout the West Bank
When Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo Accords in 1993, West Bank territory was divided into three: Area A, which included all the major Palestinian cities, came under the control of the PA. Area B was under PA civil control but Israeli military control. And Area C – 60% of the territory, including all the settlements – remained under full Israeli civil and security control.
The arrangement was supposed to be temporary as the Palestinians moved toward full statehood. But the Oslo process collapsed, and both sides realized the importance of staking a claim to the land and seizing every available hilltop, partly to thwart the territorial aspirations of the other.
Scores of small Bedouin encampments can be seen along the sides of West Bank roads, often consisting of little more than a water container and a few trailers. Young settlers, dubbed Hilltop Youth, have also seized mountaintops, backed by the far-right parties in the current coalition. They believe that the biblical Land of Israel was given by God to the Jewish people and that Jewish settlement is fulfilling a divine promise.
The international community considers settlements illegal under international law; but so far this year, the Israeli government has approved 25,000 new West Bank homes. E1 is only a small piece in the jigsaw puzzle.■