Israel issues construction tender for controversial West Bank settlement near Jerusalem

Israel has issued a tender for construction in a controversial settlement project near Jerusalem that critics say would split the West Bank in two, government documents showed on Tuesday.

According to documents, the tender seeks developers to build 3,401 units in the controversial E1 project, with a bidding deadline of March 16. Construction could start within months.

The E1 area, a strategically critical area east of Jerusalem, is a land strip between the city and the settlement of Maale Adumim. Construction there would effectively sever the territorial contiguity of the West Bank.

The anti-settlement Peace Now group, which first reported the tender, said in a statement on Tuesday that it reflects "an accelerated effort to advance construction in E1."

Construction of new settlement houses in the area is widely regarded as damaging to the prospects of a two-state solution. It would "effectively bisect the West Bank, preventing the development of a contiguous Palestinian metropolitan area between Ramallah, East Jerusalem, and Bethlehem," the group said.

Construction in the area, planned for over two decades, has been frozen by international pressure. Israel's pro-settlement Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has long pushed to start the construction, a move that he said last month would "prevent de facto" the establishment of a Palestinian state.