A general view shows the E1 area, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, between the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, left and the occupied West Bank town of Eizariya. AP
“We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms,” the statement said.
Signatories also included Australia, Canada, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden, along with the European Commission’s foreign affairs chief.
“Unilateral action by the Israeli government undermines our collective desire for security and prosperity in the Middle East. The Israeli government must stop settlement construction in line with UNSC Resolution 2334 and remove their restrictions on the finances of the Palestinian Authority,” it added.
The statement pointed to comments by Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said the plan “will make a two-state solution impossible by dividing any Palestinian state and restricting Palestinian access to Jerusalem.”
“This brings no benefits to the Israeli people,” the ministers said. “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 from going any further. We encourage them to urgently retract this plan.”
Israel gave final approval on Wednesday for the new expansionist settlement project in the E1 zone, a 12 sq km (five sq mile) stretch of land east of Jerusalem where about 3,400 residential units are planned.
The new settlement construction in the E1 zone would effectively bisect the West Bank and sever any remaining territorial contiguity between the major West Bank cities of Ramallah in the north and Bethlehem in the south.
It would allow Tel Aviv to entrench its ongoing plans to annex the occupied Palestinian territory and thwart any hopes for an independent Palestinian state.
More than 145 countries, including many of the signatories on Thursday, have recognized Palestinian statehood.
Smotrich, a former settler leader, hailed the move as a direct challenge to Western governments that have announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state.
“The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions,” he said. “Every settlement, every neighbourhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea.”
All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
Tel Aviv has planted more than 700,000 Israeli settlers among three million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
On Thursday, Britain summoned the Israeli ambassador to London, Tzipi Hotovely, to the Foreign Office in protest. “If implemented, these settlement plans would be a flagrant breach of international law and would divide a future Palestinian state in two, critically undermining a two-state solution,” it said.
The Israeli rights group Peace Now, which monitors settlement growth, told AP: “The settlement in E1 has no purpose other than to sabotage a political solution. While the consensus among our friends in the world is to strive for peace and a two-state solution, a government that long ago lost the people’s trust is undermining the national interest, and we are all paying the price.”
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