by Joshua Lapide

The project focuses mainly in the area E1, near Maale Adumim and would separate the West Bank from East Jerusalem. Grave threat to chances of peace with two-state solution.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - The Israeli Ministry for housing is planning the construction of 55,548 new homes for settlers in the West Bank. The news was released by the “Peace Now” organization, based on data received from the government. The new plan includes the creation of two new settlements and the expansion of 8,300 homes in the E1 area.

E1 is the area adjacent to the colony of Maale Adumim, which forms a sort of buffer to the east of Jerusalem, in reality separating the Arab part of the holy city from the West Bank. This will make territorial contiguity of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital more difficult.

"The area of ​​Maale Adumim and E1 - says Peace Now - is one of the most sensitive to the possibility of the two-state solution."

All dialogue between Israel and Palestine has been stalled since April 2014 on account of the increase in settlements in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. According to international law all those settlements are illegal, but Israel continues to expand making the birth of a Palestinian state almost impossible.

To date there are 380 thousand Israelis settled in 135 settlements in the West Bank, plus another 200 thousand settled in East Jerusalem.

• ISRAEL
• PALESTINE
• settlements
• expansion
• peace
• two
• state
• solution