Israel opened a tender on August 18, 2026 for 1,234 housing units in E1, the planned settlement on occupied West Bank land east of Jerusalem. The units are about a third of the 3,401 approved for the project, and bids are due days before Israel’s elections on October 27.
Why this strip of land matters
The plan covers housing, roads and industrial and commercial zones, and is meant to create territorial and transport continuity between Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and others deeper inside the West Bank. E1 sits in the corridor that holds the West Bank together from north to south: settlements and Israeli-only roads there would effectively cut the territory in two, isolating the southern governorates of Bethlehem and Hebron from northern centres such as Ramallah and Nablus. More than 18 Bedouin communities lie in the project’s path.
Khan al-Ahmar, home to 250 people, has faced eviction threats since the plan was first advanced in the 1990s. The Israeli organisation B’Tselem recorded 28 home demolitions in the area between 2006 and 2018, leaving 132 people without shelter. In May, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich instructed the Israeli Civil Administration to clear the community “as soon as possible.” Amnesty International counts at least 117 herding and Bedouin communities forcibly displaced from the West Bank since 2023.
A tender that came early
The Construction and Housing Ministry published the call for bids on the 3,401 units on December 9, 2025. Bidding was set to open that December but was postponed three times, and a separate tender for an employment and commercial zone followed in March 2026.
Peace Now, Bimkom and Ir Amim, together with Bedouin Palestinian residents, are challenging the project in court. The petitioners say the State Attorney’s Office told them in July that no tender would appear for two months and that they would be warned before the government moved ahead; no such notice arrived. They call the pre-election deadline an attempt to create “irreversible facts on the ground,” and plan to seek an injunction freezing the process until the petition is decided.
What bidders are being told
Fourteen governments issued a joint statement against the project in December 2025. In May, Britain, France, Italy and Germany warned that “businesses should not bid for construction tenders for E1 or other settlement developments,” citing legal and reputational risk. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on May 29 that any company answering the call would expose itself to international sanctions.
Israeli officials have been explicit about the political aim. Smotrich said in August 2025 that the project would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state,” and at a signing ceremony in September 2025 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared: “There will be no Palestinian state! This place is ours.”
The International Court of Justice found in 2004 that Israeli settlements are unlawful under the Fourth Geneva Convention. In 2024 it reaffirmed that finding, held the occupation itself unlawful, and said Israel must halt settlement expansion and evacuate existing settlements.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
