<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="http://9news.com.au/israel" rel="" target="" title="Israel"><span>Israel</span></a><span> is moving forward with controversial plans to build thousands of new housing units in the occupied West Bank, splitting the territory in two, a scheme far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says would "permanently bury the idea of a </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/palestine" rel="" target="" title="Palestinian"><span>Palestinian</span></a><span> state".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The E1 settlement project, frozen for decades because of vociferous international opposition, would connect </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/jerusalem" rel="" target="" title="Jerusalem"><span>Jerusalem</span></a><span> to the settlement of Maale Adumim, making a future Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem virtually impossible. It would also split the West Bank in half, preventing the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Smotrich announced the pending approval of 3401 new housing units on Thursday in a press conference held on the site of the planned construction.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/finance/ampol-eg-group/6450c950-318e-4654-8307-bf5d9c5c16a1"><strong><span>Servo giant confirms massive $1.1 billion takeover</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"They will talk about a Palestinian dream, and we will continue to build a Jewish reality," Smotrich said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This reality is what will permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Final approval for the plan is expected next week. Smotrich has repeatedly lobbied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the occupied West Bank and apply Israeli sovereignty to the entire territory.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/israel-gaza-update-bezalel-smotrich-advances-controversial-settlement-plan-aiming-to-bury-the-idea-of-a-palestinian-state/40f320ff-5c42-4f07-9e0e-7c0fc5b5e8dc" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In a statement, the presidency of the Palestinian National Council blasted the new settlement plans as a "systemic plan to steal land, Judaise it, and impose biblical and Talmudic facts on the conflict".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Speaker Rawhi Fattouh said the "colonial plan falls within the policy of creeping annexation" of the West Bank, which is accompanied by settler violence against Palestinians.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law. But during the first Trump administration, the State Department reversed longstanding US policy and ruled settlements were "not inconsistent" with international law. The Biden administration left this new policy in place.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/perth-news-emergency-surgery-for-teen-after-bizarre-perth-glass-attack/782df74e-b14e-4c99-a79b-1326588e4779"><strong><span>Emergency surgery for teen after bizarre glass attack</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/serial-child-rapist-sentence-act/d5652064-de1c-4a2d-8930-597e63567f83" rel="" target="" title=""><strong><span>Serial rapist to walk free in little more than a year</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Smotrich announced the advancement of the plan in the press conference on Thursday, presenting it as Israel's response to the recent wave of </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-recognises-palestinian-state-prime-minister-anthony-albanese/fa5242e7-fd99-43f1-9f63-a32000a7e922" rel="" target="" title="countries including Australia announcing their intention to recognise a Palestinian state"><span>countries including Australia announcing their intention to recognise a Palestinian state</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Israeli settlement watchdog "Peace Now" blasted the advancement of the E1 plan, deeming it "deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We are standing at the edge of an abyss, and the government is driving us forward at full speed," it said, in a statement. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"There is a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to the terrible war in Gaza — the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel — and it will ultimately come. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The government's annexation moves are taking us further away from this solution and guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><em></em><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f"><em><strong><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the </span></strong></em><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727"><em><strong><span>Apple App Store</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span> and </span></strong></em><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU"><em><strong><span>Google Play</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>.</span></strong></em></div></div>