Denmark, European countries pushing for emergency UN Security Council meeting on E1

‘This is a moral disgrace and proof of how completely out of touch with reality these countries have become,’ Israeli ambassador to UN tells ToI ahead of expected meeting next week

By Lazar Berman

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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

This photograph taken from the E1 corridor, an area in the West Bank shows vehicles driving along the highway near the Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, on September 8, 2026. (Ahmad GHARABLI/AFP)

The United Nations Security Council is preparing to convene an emergency meeting next week on Israeli plans to build in the E1 area of the West Bank, east of Jerusalem, Israel’s mission to the UN told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.

The effort was being spearheaded by a number of European countries, led by Security Council member Denmark.

The move was an attempt to forestall Israel’s tender process. The Israel Land Authority’s deadline for opening tender bids on the construction of 1,234 housing units is November 19.

Israel was working with its close allies on the Security Council, the United States and Greece, to torpedo the meeting.

“While the Middle East is on fire and Iran’s terrorist regime continues to threaten global peace, European countries are choosing to summon the Security Council for an emergency meeting simply because Israel is building in its own country,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told The Times of Israel.

“This is a moral disgrace and proof of how completely out of touch with reality these countries have become. Our right to build and develop our country is indisputable. We will not accept dictates or moral lectures from those who choose to turn a blind eye to real terrorism.”

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon points toward the Iranian delegation during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East at UN headquarters in New York on February 28, 2026. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)

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.

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 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 in September, 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, with far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hailing it as a “significant step that practically erases the two-state delusion.”