Housing ministry issues tenders for over 1,200 units in controversial E1 settlement project

The Ministry of Construction and Housing has issued a tender to build 1,234 new housing units in the West Bank as part of the controversial E1 settlement expansion plan.

Bidding for the project — which both critics and proponents say will effectively divide the West Bank — will close on October 19, a week before the Knesset elections.

This is a last-minute maneuver that is part of the scorched-earth policy the government is pursuing at the end of its term to secure long years of conflict and bloodshed for Israel,” the Peace Now settlement watchdog says in a statement. “Building in E1 will ruin the possibility of reaching an end to the conflict and a peace arrangement based on two states. The government is trying to sign contracts with contractors before the elections so that it will be much harder for the next government to cancel the construction.”