Al-Haq unequivocally condemns the serious and detrimental steps Israel is publicly pursuing to formally annex the unlawfully occupied West Bank. On 16 October 2025, the Times of Israel reported that the Ministerial Committee for Legislation is set to consider several bills to apply sovereignty to the whole or parts of the West Bank when the Knesset returned from its nearly three-month-long recess on Sunday, 19 October 2025.

This comes after the recent approval of the E1 settlement plan, described as a “defining moment for settlement, for security, and for the entire state of Israel”. This alarming development gravely undermines the territorial contiguity of the West Bank and consolidates Israel’s long-standing efforts to eradicate the prospect of a sovereign Palestinian State, and with it its indigenous Palestinian population.

The “E1 area” is located in the central West Bank and serves as an essential passage connecting the northern and southern parts of the unlawfully occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem. The area spans over 22,000 dunums of predominantly privately owned Palestinian land, unlawfully expropriated by Israel and declared as “State Land” during the 1980s. The E1 settlement plan, which encompasses a 12 km² narrow land corridor north east of the Palestinian town of Abu Dis, and surrounded by four settlements, was recently announced by Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, as Masaveret Adumim. If implemented, the plan would effectively connect the nearby Ma’ale Adumim settlement, illegal under international law and one of the most populated settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, to East Jerusalem. The settlement subcommittee of the Israeli Civil Administration has already approved 3,400 new housing units on occupied Palestinian territory, although the plan includes a further 342 units in a new settlement in Asael, in the south of the West Bank. Proudly presenting the decision as a move which “buries the idea of a Palestinian State”, Smotrich explained that there will simply be “nothing to recognise and no one left to recognise”.

The illegal E1 settlement plan serves as a microcosm of the Israeli policy of Palestinian land annexation; the “Mavaseret Adumim” settlement project is an integral component of the “Great Jerusalem” plan, the first to conjoin and treat East and West Jerusalem as one unit for the purposes of Israeli annexation, and aspires for a 70 percent Jewish majority in Jerusalem by 2030. Within this annexationist framework, in which the mass forcible displacement of Palestinians plays an integral role, the E1 plan places approximately 3,000 Palestinian Bedouins belonging to 20 communities –– primarily from the Jahalin tribe that has previously been forcibly displaced from their land in the Naqab desert in 1948 –– at imminent risk of renewed forcible displacement

In addition to the direct impact on Palestinian Bedouin communities, the annexation plan will encroach on and irreversibly fragment Palestinian land and society, obstructing Palestinians’ freedom of movement within the West Bank. On a broader scale, the annexation of this geographically crucial area of land would effectively isolate East Jerusalem from the West Bank, and completely sever the West Bank. Construction in the E1 area, combined with restrictions imposed by the Annexation Wall and the expired Oslo Accords, only further entrenches Israel’s settler-colonial project, carving up Palestinian land and undermining both the viability of a sovereign, economically-viable territorially contiguous Palestine and directly obstructing the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. This is not hyperbole. Smotrich himself has stated: “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”.

While first initiated in the 1990s, the E1 settlement plan has been stalled since 2005. Considering the grave implications this plan would pose to Palestine’s territorial integrity if successful, Israel’s latest attempt to advance the project –– announced shortly after several States communicated their plans to recognise the State of Palestine –– is a deliberate attempt to undermine international efforts towards realising the right of the Palestinian people to full self-determination, while facilitating its escalating annexation of unlawfully occupied Palestine. This mirrors Israel’s decision to advance the E1 settlement plan in 2012, in response to the UN’s decision to upgrade Palestine to a non-member observer State. However, the subsequent halting of the plan demonstrated the critical role of international pressure in preventing Israel’s acquisition of territory by force, the prohibition of which constitutes a peremptory norm, which Third States are under erga omnes obligations to prevent.

In response to a leading group of States recognising Palestine as a State at the UN General Assembly in September, the Israeli government has doubled down on their plans to apply full sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory. Immediately prior to this, on 3 September 2025, Minister Smotrich presented a plan to annex 82 percent of the West Bank. The plan proposed would leave just six isolated enclaves - where major Palestinian cities such as Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, Ramallah, Jericho and Hebron are located – outside of Israeli control. The principle behind the plan was described as “maximum land with minimum [Palestinian] population”.

Increased annexationist rhetoric, accompanied by tangible steps to cement Israel’s control over Palestinian territory, make it incumbent upon the international community, to take immediate, concrete countermeasures to ensure that Israel is unable to further cement its settler-colonial, apartheid, and genocidal regime. Mere recognition is not sufficient; continued inaction in the face of Israel’s de facto, and increasingly de jure, annexation of Palestine and wholesale destruction of Gaza renders the prospect of a recognised Palestinian State entirely meaningless, since there will soon be nothing left to recognise.

Al-Haq urgently calls for immediate and decisive action that permanently eliminates any prospects of the E1 settlement plan being implemented. While Al-Haq notes the recent statements of condemnation issued by States, including members of the European Union, mere words of disapproval do nothing to dissuade Israel, emboldened by over seven decades of impunity and the support, both tacit and overt, of the international community as it continues its genocidal Nakba. The E1 project constitutes an act of de facto annexation, taking place against a backdrop of legislative and policy changes extending Israel’s control and authority over the West Bank, and demands an appropriate, robust response.

The international community, acting both unilaterally and through the UN and its relevant bodies, must:

• Uphold their obligations under the Genocide Convention, the 2004 Wall Advisory Opinion and 2024 Palestine Advisory Opinion, by ceasing all forms of complicity with Israel’s illegal occupation, racial segregation and apartheid, and by actively supporting the exercise of by the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination. This includes implementing the recommendations of the 2024 Advisory Opinion on Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, to:

• Not render aid or assistance to Israel’s illegal acts;

• Bring to an end as rapidly as possible Israel’s unlawful presence in Palestine, ensuring that Israel immediately ceases all settlement activities (in line with UN Security Council resolution 2334) and evacuates all settlers from the Palestinian territory;

• Ensure the right of return of Palestinians forcibly displaced from the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

• Use every means at their disposal to compel Israel to respect international law, including, inter alia:

• Imposing a full and immediate arms embargo against Israel;

• Immediately ceasing all diplomatic and trade relations;

• Enacting a comprehensive ban, underpinned by a rigorous regulatory regime, on companies and entities involved to any degree with the production, trade or marketing of Israeli goods and services that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation, including settlements products, or contribute in any way to the Israel’s genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, annexation of Palestinian territory and denial of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination;

• Imposing targeted sanctions on physical and legal persons, Israeli and international, including all members of Israel’s Security Cabinet and military leadership, corporations, institutions, and non-profit entities, complicit in Israel’s breaches of international law.

• Investigate and prosecute all legal and natural persons, through national legislation and international mechanisms, which are complicit or partners in Israeli mass atrocities and grave violations of international law.