The Israeli government last week invited bids for the building of more than 1,200 units, a key step towards the construction of the E1 settlement in the occupied West Bank just two months before Israel’s general election.
E1 (East 1) would link Ma’ale Adumim and other illegal Israeli settlements to occupied East Jerusalem, effectively severing the West Bank in two. Both supporters and critics agree that its construction would end the possibility of a Palestinian state.
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The move has drawn international outrage, including from the United Nations.
But sections of Israel’s political class are using this global backlash to their own ends and could frame their support for E1 as a key pitch in their election campaigns.
How could they benefit Israel?
Many on Israel’s right, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thrive on the international outrage their comments and plans draw, particularly criticism from European nations.
Since October 2023, Netanyahu has cast international criticism of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza as an “us vs them” moment for the country. He has frequently framed Israel as alone in a hostile world and that he is the only leader strong enough to stand up to the country’s critics.
After the United Kingdom’s Foreign Minister Ed Miliband described E1 as an “unacceptable and destructive act”, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar criticised the “patronising tone” of his statement.
With the election approaching, the way ministers respond to the E1 project could determine their political futures.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has been one of the key proponents of E1 and could benefit from an uptick in support from right-wing Israelis over the proposed illegal settlement. His Religious Zionist Party is currently unlikely to pass the electoral threshold to even run in this year’s election.
“It’s Smotrich, he’s hyping up everything under his watch ahead of the election,” Israeli analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg told Al Jazeera from Berlin, Germany.
The fact that the government’s call for tenders to construct E1 falls so close to Israel’s election is not a coincidence, Flaschenberg said. Neither is the dramatic increase in settler violence in the occupied West Bank, where Smotrich has administrative control.
“Both he and even Netanyahu are benefitting from the outrage. Little of this is accidental,” the analyst added.
How extensive has this outrage been?
Condemnation of the E1 settlement has been almost universal. On Friday, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates rejected the E1 settlement, calling for “immediate action to halt the E1 settlement plan”.
Earlier in the week, 15 European and North American leaders, including those from Israel’s traditional allies the United Kingdom, France and Germany, condemned the settlement.
In a joint letter, they said E1 would “undermine the prospect of the two-state solution by driving a wedge through the West Bank”. Some have pointed out that their failure to present any penalties if Israel goes ahead with the plan makes their criticism moot.
The United States has not criticised E1 itself, but did on Friday state its opposition to Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, which the illegal settlement could effectively result in.
“As the president has clearly stated, the US does not support Israel annexing the West Bank. A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region,” read a statement from the US Department of State.
So, is this really the end of the two-state solution?
Announcing plans for construction in August 2025, Smotrich had boasted that the new settlement would bury the “idea of a Palestinian state”.
Given that thousands of Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since its occupation of the West Bank began in 1967, some hope the same could happen to the illegal Israeli settlements that replaced them, if the two-state solution becomes a reality.
“The idea that this is irreversible is just nonsense. Every time there’s a new illegal settlement, voices in the West say that this is the end of the two-state solution,” Flaschenberg said.
“It definitely makes it less likely, but why the end? Every illegal settlement that’s been built can be demolished … why do we have to accept their presence as fact?”
Political analyst Ori Goldberg noted that the tender for the E1 settlement project came at a time Israel faced further international criticism for bombing an airfield in Syria and described the issuing of the tender as “a deliberate provocation”.
Is it all smoke and mirrors?
Thousands of Palestinians, most of them Bedouin, have already suffered home demolitions, displacement and restrictions on basic services as Israel expands its road network before construction in the occupied West Bank.
In April 2026, 23 Palestinians, including 15 children, were displaced from the az-Za’im Bedouin community following demolitions by the Israeli army.
The UN warns that the planned expansion of Israeli illegal settlements and associated infrastructure threatens to fragment the occupied West Bank and could forcibly displace the 18 Palestinian communities that have lived within the territory Israel now claims for decades.
