The Israeli government appears to be setting the stage for approving the E1 settlement, one of the most dangerous settlement initiatives yet, aimed at breaking up the West Bank and expanding the Israeli borders of Jerusalem. E1 is a sparsely populated area that stretches between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives. By settling this strategic area, the West Bank would physically be cut off from the north and the south.

Israeli attorney Daniel Seidemann told Al-Monitor that the E1 project has been in the books for years but is now being revived because of the support Israel feels from Washington. “E1 has devastating effects on the Permanent Status Agreement because it fragments the West Bank into cantons and will further isolate East Jerusalem,” he said. Seidemann said that in the past, when Israeli officials flirted with the idea, the international community, including the United States, came down on them like a ton of bricks.

While the Israeli aspirations to initiate this massive controversial settlement were first identified in 1996, steps are being taken today to gradually make it happen, even though the last forward movement in this regard took place in November 2012 and no direct Israeli government decision about the E1 settlement has been taken since, Seidemann noted.

One day after the United Nations General Assembly voted to declare Palestine a non-member state, a senior Israeli official was quoted Nov. 30, 2012, in The New York Times as saying, “The Israeli government would pursue preliminary zoning and planning preparations for a development that would limit access to the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem from Jerusalem to only narrow corridors far from the Old City and downtown Jerusalem.”