After the final approval was given for more than 3,400 housing units on the site in August 2025, the first call for construction tenders was issued last month to build 1,200 residential units in the southern part of E1. The bidding closes on 19 October, just before the Israeli elections on 27 October.
Global condemnation campaign
The Netanyahu government’s determination to press ahead with the scheme has provoked a storm of global condemnation, with the new British government, led by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, playing a prominent role in criticising the project.
To this end, the UK announced a wide-ranging ban on trade with Israeli settlements. It aims to deter companies from taking part in building E1 and has already received backing from Canada, France, Ireland and Spain, which have announced similar measures.
In one of the most hard-hitting critiques of Israeli policy issued by a British foreign secretary, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband accused the Israeli government of indulging in “ethnic cleansing”, while describing Israeli settlers accused of carrying out acts of violence against Palestinian civilians as “terrorists”.
“The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists,” Miliband said, adding that there had been “houses bulldozed, roads and public infrastructure destroyed, families displaced from their homes.”
Miliband said the ban on trade with all Israeli settlements will be in place in six to nine months, and said other European countries, such as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden, had all pledged to “support further action.” For their part, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway have either already banned goods from settlements or are in the process of doing so, he said. Miliband also tightened Britain’s embargo on weapons sales to Israel for use in Gaza to include arms “that materially contribute to the occupation” of Palestinian territories.