Nadene Goldfoot
France, Germany, Britain and Italy issued a joint condemnation Thursday evening following a tender published by Israel's Housing Ministry for the construction of 1,234 housing units in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim.
E1 Area: is a strategic 12-square-kilometer stretch of Area C land . This is land for Israel only to live in ever since the Oslo Accords.
This area is divided between Area A – under full Palestinian Authority administrative and security control,
Area B – under Palestinian Authority administrative control and joint Israeli and Palestinian security control, and
Area C – under Israeli administrative and security control. The whole area is bisected by borders, security fences, bypass roads, and checkpoints.
The Land of Judea is an area with a fascinating history. The home of the biblical forefathers; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the area of the Davidic and Solomonic kingdom of Judah, the homeland of the prophets Amos and Jeremiah, the birthplace of Jesus, the land of the Edomites who joined the Jewish Hasmonean Kingdom. King Herod built his royal estate in the area as well as a system of aqueducts that supplied water to Jerusalem. Bar Kokhba, together with Rabbi Akiva, led the second Jewish rebellion against Rome from this area. After the destruction of the Jewish villages in the Land of Judea, following the revolt, in the fourth century CE the Byzantine Desert Fathers built monasteries and churches for the thousands of hermits that settled in the Desert of the Holy City – i.e. the Judean Desert.
In parts of it, Areas A, Israelis are not permitted to enter without permission from the Civil Administration of the Israel Ministry of Defense. Other areas, deep in the Judean Desert, can only be reached by off-road vehicles. Nevertheless, for people living in Israel and visitors from abroad, the Land of Judea is a region where a deeper insight of this land, from the past to the present, can be gained – notwithstanding the political opinion of the reader.
So E1 lies between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim. It is about (4.6 square miles, or roughly 4.5 square miles) Well, first, we Jews are calling area C by it's original name of Judea-Samaria.
Part of the European's statement said, "The E1 settlement will undermine the prospect of the two-state solution by driving a wedge through the West Bank and harming the territorial contiguity of the Palestinian Territories. Ladies and Gentlemen, you do not realize it, but the Arabs called Palestinians are not ready for nationhood and probably will not be ready until 100 years passes by. They have not fulfilled the requirements for nationhood in the first place, and after October 7, how any nation dare expect Israel to want them to be the neighbors whose only goal is to destroy Israel. Do the Europeans think that the Israelis are crazy?
- Permanent population living stably within the region.
- Defined territory with recognizable geographic borders.
- Functioning government capable of maintaining internal order.
- Diplomatic capacity to interact with other global powers.
- Explore the formal legal framework in the Montevideo Convention.
- Review the academic breakdown of state criteria via London School of Economics.
- Read about cultural definitions on Britannica.
International law is not clear that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal." Would you like to have a debate with our international lawyer experts on the subject? I'm sure that would he a thriller to watch on TV.
A European diplomat said: "Israel explicitly promised its friends on the continent that there would be no progress on construction in E1.
If true, they had to be from the opposing party, include Gadi Eisenkot's surging Yashar Party, alongside opposition factions like Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid and Naftali Bennett's circles. It used to be the Labor party. They continue: This therefore crosses a red line and is a very bad development."
According to the diplomat, European countries are now discussing whether to take measures against Israel even before the election. He estimated that Finance Minister Smotrich was behind the move and that "he is doing it for political reasons." He also warned that, from the perspective of European countries, advancing construction in E1 could justify a significant shift in policy toward Israel.
Yes, actual housing construction has moved forward from the planning phase. Israel’s housing ministry issued active tenders for the first batch of over 1,200 housing units in the strategic E1 corridor, shifting the long-delayed project into the implementation stage.
Whoever reads the Bible these days? If you did, you would be reading about Judea and Samaria and the Jewish kings who lived there with their subjects. Jews are the indigenous people of Judea-Samaria, from being Judah to Jew; that's who we are. Indigenous peoples are the original inhabitants of a specific region, maintaining a deep cultural, spiritual, and generational connection to their ancestral lands long before the arrival of outside colonizers or modern states.
.
