Mandatory east
Federal government against new settlement construction in West Bank
Updated on August 15th, 2025 – 00:32 a.m.Reading time: 1 min.
Israel wants to build thousands of new residential units in the area and thus make a coherent territory more difficult for a future Palestinian state. Sharp criticism comes from Berlin.
The Federal Government rejects Israeli plans for the construction of thousands of new residential units in West Bank. “The settlement construction violates international law and relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council,” said a spokesman for the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. “He complicates a negotiated two -state solution and an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, as the International Court of Justice demands.”
The Israeli Finance Minister Bezhalel Smotrich recently announced plans for the construction of around 3,400 residential units in the E1 area between East Jerusalem and the Maale Adumim settlement. The area is one of the most sensitive points in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The West Bank would actually divide its development into a northern and a southern part and make a coherent territory to a future Palestinian state considerably difficult, if not impossible. Smotrich also threatened with the annexation of the West Bank, a Palestinian state should be recognized in the coming month.
In 1967, Israel had conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the Six Day War, where today more than 700,000 settlers live in the middle of around three million Palestinians. According to international law, the settlements there are illegal. “The Federal Government calls on the Israeli government to hire the settlement construction and will only recognize such changes to the borders of June 4, 1967, which have been agreed by the conflict parties,” said the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. “The Federal Government clearly rejects any annexation plans of the Israeli government.”
