E1 tender process to proceed as planned, but award of tender to be delayed until after election

By Jeremy Sharon

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28 September 2026, 5:42 pm

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Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

In a slight change to her position, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara will not push off the deadline to submit bids for the controversial E1 settlement project tender, but is instead simply barring the award of the tender until after the election.

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.

Baharav-Miara has now moderated her position, with the original deadline for bids being preserved but the evaluation and award of the tenders being postponed until after the election.

Maale Adumim Mayor Guy Yifrach, who filed a petition to the High Court against Baharav-Miara’s original position on Sunday, says in response that he is pleased the original deadline had been preserved, 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.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has strongly supported the E1 development, rejects the attorney general’s latest position, alleging that Baharav-Miara 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, the left comes to power, and cancels the construction,” Smotrich charges, adding that the tender process, including the award of the contract, must be completed by the original date.

The E1 project would see thousands of housing units built as an extension of the Maale Adumim settlement, between the existing western boundaries of Maale Adumim and East Jerusalem, cutting off territorial contiguity between key Palestinian population centers.