Europe, Canada condemn Israeli plans for new West Bank settlement

Israeli intends to build a major new illegal settlement that would cleave the occupied West Bank in two have provoked widespread condemnation from worldwide.

Key points

• The settlement would bisect the West Bank from north to south, cutting off the West Bank's link to East Jerusalem.
• Israel offered final approvals to the E1 plan last August, with hardline Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hailing it as "historic".
• Dozens of Palestinian communities in the West Bank are now at risk of erasure, Human Rights Watch remarked in a recent report.
• Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim wrote on social media that the intends "gravely undermine the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian homeland".
• Analysts have linked the scramble for settlements to Israel's upcoming elections in October.

In a joint statement issued on Thursday, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Norway called Israel's opening of construction tenders for more than 1, 200 housing units under the E1 settlement project "unacceptable" and in violation of "the territorial contiguity of the Palestinian Territories".

Meanwhile, the group cautioned of "legal and reputational consequences" for participants and called on Israel "to retract these plans immediately and end its expansion of settlements in the West Bank".

"Not only will they take us further from peace, but they further undermine Israel's international standing, " the statement continued.

Notably, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry additionally expressed its "complete rejection of attempts to entrench the status quo through illegal settlement expansion" and called on the international community to "take serious steps to stop these violations".

Israel has abandoned "even the pretence of seeking peace or respecting the will of the international community", he continued.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has additionally condemned the plan. The UN's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric remarked the secretary-general was "deeply alarmed by the reports of new illegal Israeli settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank", including the new tenders.

Israeli settlements and outposts in the occupied territory are illegal under international law, but their development has accelerated since the start of the Israeli government's genocidal war on Gaza introduced in October 2023.

For context, the project, slated to include at least 3, 400 units, would connect occupied East Jerusalem to the Maale Adumim settlement area on roughly 12 square kilometres (4.6sq miles) of Palestinian land.

Meanwhile, the settlement would bisect the West Bank from north to south, cutting off the West Bank's link to East Jerusalem. It for years Palestinians have cited as the preferred capital of their future state.

"The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions, " he boasted. At least 21 countries condemned the intends at the time.

Israel's decision to move forward with the expansion comes as rights groups warn of the mass displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank against the backdrop of rising settler attacks and the expansion of illegal settlements.

Research from the UN's humanitarian body has discovered that more Palestinians were forcibly displaced by settler attacks, demolitions and evictions in the first four months of 2026 than in all of 2025.

In short, europe, Canada condemn Israeli plans for new West Bank settlement is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.