The Palestinians are attempting to seize control of the area known as E-1 between Jerusalem and the suburb of Maaleh Adumim, Israel Hayom has learned.
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The E-1 area, which stretches across 7 kilometers (4 miles) just east of the Jerusalem municipal boundary between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim, has been the focus of controversy as the Palestinians claim it is essential for their future state. The area is of strategic importance to Israel.
The pirate takeover is being perpetrated through tree-planting and the fencing off of lands in a manner that alters the sensitive status quo in the area.
Over the years, various plans for construction in E-1 have been presented to create territorial continuity between Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem. The plans, however, have been rejected time after time due to international pressure spearheaded by the Palestinians.
The Israeli interest in realizing the E-1 plan, as defined by IDF chiefs of staff throughout the years, is not shared by the international community, and the EU in particular. Israel's interest is to see continuity between the west of the country – Jerusalem – and the east – from Maaleh Adumim to the Dead Sea, as part of a Jewish security belt around the capital.
Israel fears the Palestinians could cut Maaleh Adumim off from Jerusalem through construction that would surround Jerusalem from the east and see portions of Jerusalem go back to being something of a no man's land, as they were on the eve of the 1967 Six-Day War, in such a way that would prevent the city from developing eastward, as well as threats to the Jerusalem-Jericho road upon which Palestinian construction has encroached. This artery is of strategic and security importance of the first degree for Israel to be able to lead its troops through the Jordan Valley and northward in a time of war.
The Palestinians' latest violations were discovered and documented by members of the Jerusalem Periphery Forum ("Forum Otef Yerushalayim"). In one place, a tree orchard was planted, and in another place, a fence was built, with a locked gate, around a large segment of E1.
A local Bedouin told a Jerusalem Periphery Forum member that a Palestinian clan from a nearby village had planted the orchard – indicating an organized attempt on the part of the Palestinian Authority to seize control of the territory. Based on precedents, when Palestinian interlopers are allowed to hold a piece of land for a prolonged period of time without being quickly evacuated by the state, it becomes legally and diplomatically difficult to do so.
According to the Jerusalem Periphery Forum, these actions are part of a trend aiming to create Palestinian continuity and "sever" Maaleh Adumim from Jerusalem.
"The State of Israel needs to wake up and take immediate action to stop the obtrusions whether in E1 and throughout the entire Jerusalem periphery area and Route 417, which leads to the capital of Israel. We are losing our land, losing our capital, and need to wake up today," an official from the Jerusalem Periphery Forum said.
In February, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ordered the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria's supreme planning council to halt discussions on the authorization of construction to connect Maaleh Adumim to Jerusalem through the E-1 corridor.
Construction had been planned for some 3,000 acres of largely government-owned land and was to include some 3,500 housing units.
The committee began to discuss the plan, which had been frozen for years, toward the end of the previous government under Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett and Gantz intervened at the fourth of six authorization stages after most of the Palestinian objections to the move were heard.
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The government directive to stop the talks and the promotion of the plan followed sharp criticism from the Meretz party, which made clear it saw the advancement of construction as the crossing of a red line, as well as opposition from Washington. The US has for years taken the Palestinian side on the issue, claiming the plan would cut off Palestinian territorial continuity from the north to the south and could prevent the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
"After years of a construction freeze, when we finally started to move along the path of planning approval procedures, this intervention is unacceptable," Maaleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel said at the time. "We thought Gantz was the successor to Rabin, who initiated the plan and declared the E-1 lands state land. Unfortunately, we have been proven wrong. This was done without consulting with us. The time has come to realize through construction our control of these lands before others take over them.
"The claim that E-1 cuts off Palestinian continuity is not true," Kashriel said. "Anyone familiar with the area knows it. It's just an excuse to prevent us from developing and growing."
