Attorney general eases stance on E1 settlement plan, allowing submissions for tenders

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara adjusted her position Monday regarding the controversial E1 settlement project, dropping a demand that the deadline to submit tenders be delayed until after the upcoming national election, and instead simply barring the awarding of the tenders until after the vote.

On Sunday, the attorney general ordered that the final date for submitting proposals be delayed by a month due to concerns that the tender process could be used for election propaganda by the government ahead of the October 27 election.

Bidding was originally due to close on October 19, a week before the election.

Ma’ale Adumim Mayor Guy Yifrach, who filed a petition to the High Court against Baharav-Miara’s original position on Sunday, said in response that he was pleased the original deadline had been restored, and called on developers and contractors “to do a Zionist act with us, and to be partners in building and expanding Maale Adumim and connecting it to Jerusalem, our capital.”

However, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a strong proponent of the E1 development, rejected the attorney general’s latest position, alleging that she was still seeking to delay the tender process in the hope that the opposition would win the election and cancel the project.

“She has one goal — to create a situation in which the tender does not finish in our [government] term, and the left comes to power and cancels the construction,” Smotrich charged, adding that the tender process, including the award of the contracts, must be completed by the original date.

The E1 project would see thousands of housing units built as an extension of the Ma’ale Adumim city-settlement, between the existing western boundaries of Ma’ale Adumim and East Jerusalem, cutting off territorial contiguity between key Palestinian population centers, including Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The Palestinians and many Western governments say the project would effectively torpedo the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank.

Smotrich and other far-right Israelis are enthusiastic about that assessment. Smotrich hailed its approval last year as a “significant step that practically erases the two-state delusion.”

The E1 plan was given final approval in August 2025 after years of delays, largely caused by vehement objections from the international community, including the US.

The Housing Ministry issued a tender in August for seven residential compounds comprising 1,234 housing units in E1, with bidding originally due to close on October 19, a week before the election.

Earlier this month, the Jerusalem District Court rejected a request by rights groups to freeze the tender process, allowing it to proceed while broader petitions against the project remain under review.

A second tender for another 2,167 units was added in September, bringing the total number of homes covered by the two tenders to 3,401, according to rights group Ir Amim. That tender is scheduled to open for bidding on October 25, two days before the election. Ir Amim said the timing showed the government was seeking to push ahead with the project and create an increasingly difficult-to-reverse reality on the ground before voters go to the polls.

The European Union’s diplomatic service condemned in August Israel’s move to issue tenders for the E1 project, warning that the planned construction would “divide the West Bank in two, isolating East Jerusalem” and further undermine “the viability of a two-state solution.”

In announcing sanctions on West Bank settlements last month, the UK cited the E1 project, along with rampant settler violence, for the decision.

Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, meanwhile, have promoted the project as a means of strengthening Israeli control in the area between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim.