Israel approves illegal settlement plan that would split occupied West Bank | Occupied West Bank News

Location of E1 is significant because it is one of the last geographical links between Bethlehem and Ramallah.

Israel has given final approval for a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank that experts say would damage plans for any future territorially contiguous Palestinian state in the territory.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who announced the plan on August 14, hailed the decision as “historic” and framed the approval as a rebuke to Western countries…