The European Union has once again condemned Israel’s plans to advance the construction of the strategic E1 settlement, which would split the West Bank in two and separate it from Jerusalem, making the creation of a Palestinian state practically impossible. After more than a dozen European countries expressed their rejection this week, the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, has raised the tone against the settlements promoted by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
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“The EU’s position is clear, settlements in the West Bank, including the E1 area, are illegal under international law,” the high representative said in a statement released this Sunday.
Kallas has demanded that Israeli authorities abandon plans to expand the settlements and cancel the tender for the construction of more than 1,200 homes in the E1 area, which would break the contiguity of the Palestinian Territories. The Estonian diplomat denounced that the project “fundamentally harms the prospects for the two-state solution.” “The EU reaffirms its unwavering commitment to a global, just, and lasting peace based on the two-state solution, in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions, in which two democratic states — Israel and Palestine — coexist in peace and security within safe and recognized borders,” she concluded.
“These events occur at a time when the West Bank is experiencing increasing instability and record levels of violence by settlers,” Kallas lamented.
In the first half of this year, the army and settlers killed at least 57 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to UN figures. The NGO Shalom Ajshav (Peace Now, in Hebrew) has calculated that in 2025 alone, the Israeli government approved the establishment of 54 new settlements and promoted nearly 28,000 homes, more than double previous annual records.
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“The Israeli government’s decision to publish construction tenders for the E1 settlement project is unacceptable,” several European countries, including Spain, said last week.
The expansion plans for the E1 settlement emerged in the 1990s, but Netanyahu’s government is the first to dare to carry them out. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was also clear last week in expressing her rejection of these Israeli projects. “We have long opposed this step,” Von der Leyen said, despite being one of the European voices most reluctant to criticize Israel.
Kallas, who also usually opts for caution, has been the latest to join this recent wave of criticism. Last year she also described Israel’s settlements in the West Bank as “unacceptable.” In June, during the last meeting of EU leaders, the Twenty-Seven again condemned Israel’s “unilateral actions” to “expand its presence” in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. However, the European Union has not been able to reach a consensus to impose economic sanctions to curb trade in products originating from Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.
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