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Israel Committee Examines E1 Settlement Plans

Israeli plans to build new settler homes near Jerusalem, which have triggered a diplomatic outcry, were presented Wednesday to a planning committee in their first step forward in seven years, an official said.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the proposal to build at least 3,000 new homes, including in a corridor of West Bank land where observers say construction could wipe out hopes of establishing a viable Palestinian state.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Israeli official confirmed that plans for the development of the E1 area had been handed over to a Defense Ministry planning committee for its approval in the first step of a lengthy process.

"It could take days, months or even years for them to approve it and after that it will need to go through another few stages," he told AFP.

"Final approval for the plan will have to come from the political level. There won't be any bulldozers going in any time soon. It will take at least several months, if not years."

Known as E1, the area in question lies between the easternmost edge of annexed east Jerusalem and the nearby Maaleh Adumim settlement.

Observers say Israeli construction there would effectively prevent the future establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state, dooming the two-state solution.

News of Israel's intention to push ahead with plans to build in E1 emerged on Friday, a day after the Palestinians won U.N. non-member state observer status, in what was a major diplomatic blow to the Jewish state as it tried to block the move.

The Israeli plan sparked an immediate outcry from top diplomats in Washington and Brussels, with at least six governments summoning the Israeli ambassador to protest at the move. The U.N. warned the plan could deal an "almost fatal blow" to the two-state solution.

According to a report in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, Wednesday's meeting of the Higher Planning Committee will focus on two aspects of development in the E1 bloc, which would see 1,200 homes built in the southern sector and another 2,176 in the east.

Construction in E1 has been on Israel's radar since the early 1990s, but plans to build there were never implemented due to heavy pressure, largely from Washington.

Source: Agence France Presse


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