Israeli far-right minister backs contentious West Bank settlement plan

Israel's finance minister backed plans on Thursday to build 3,400 homes in a particularly contentious area of the occupied West Bank, calling for the territory's annexation in response to several countries' plans to recognize a Palestinian state.

The United Nations chief warned that building Israeli homes in the area would "put an end to" hopes for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel has long had ambitions to build on the sensitive parcel of land east of Jerusalem known as E1, but the plan has been frozen for decades amid international opposition.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, while critics and the international community have warned construction on the roughly 12 square kilometers would undermine hopes for a contiguous future Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

The site sits between the ancient city and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, near routes connecting the north and south of the Palestinian territory. There are also separate, frozen plans to expand Israel's separation barrier to envelop the area.

"Those who want to recognize a Palestinian state today will receive a response from us on the ground... Through concrete actions: houses, neighborhoods, roads and Jewish families building their lives," said Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's finance minister, who was speaking at a pro-settlement event on the advancement of plans for the E1 parcel.

The UK and France are among several countries to announce in recent weeks plans to recognize a Palestinian state later this year, saying they wanted to keep the two-state solution alive.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said, "If this went ahead – which we call on the Israeli government not to do... it would sever the northern and southern West banks."

He added that "it would put an end to the prospects of a two-state solution."

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the plans and called for "genuine international intervention and the imposition of sanctions on the occupation to compel it to halt the implementation."

"Colonial construction in the E1 area is a continuation of the occupation's plans to destroy the opportunity for the establishment of a Palestinian state," it added.

The European Union's chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said the plan "further undermines the two-state solution while being a breach of international law" and called on Israel "to desist."

Germany said it "strongly objects" to the plan and called on the Israeli government to "stop settlement construction," while Saudi Arabia also condemned the move "in the strongest possible terms."

Israeli NGO Peace Now, which monitors settlement activity in the West Bank, denounced the E1 plan as "deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution."

The NGO said the final approval hearing would be held next Wednesday by a technical committee under the Defense Ministry, which has already rejected all objections to the proposals. After the bureaucratic steps are completed, "infrastructure work in E1 could begin within a few months, and housing construction within about a year."

The West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as about 500,000 Israeli settlers.