“Demanding transparency and enforcing US laws governing military aid should be the bare minimum for any senator.”
Palestinians survey the damage after Israeli settlers raided the West Bank village of Al-Mughayyir, setting Palestinian-owned vehicles on fire and spraying racist slogans in Hebrew on September 29, 2026.
(Photo by Issam Rimawi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Sep 29, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
The US Senate is expected to vote as soon as Tuesday evening on a resolution that would require the Trump administration to produce an official report on Israel’s human rights practices in the illegally occupied West Bank, where the US-backed Israeli government is engaging in large-scale land confiscations, displacing Palestinians en masse, and enabling deadly settler violence.
The Senate measure, known as S.Res.852, cites Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to formally request “an unclassified statement” from the US State Department “regarding Israel’s human rights practices.” The filibuster-proof resolution, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), notes that at least nine Palestinian Americans have been killed by Israeli settlers or security forces in the West Bank since 2022, and that “Israeli military authorities have detained, interrogated, prosecuted, and imprisoned approximately 13,000 Palestinian children” since 2000.
If passed by the Senate, Van Hollen’s resolution would require the State Department to produce a report within 30 days on the Israeli government’s human rights conduct in the West Bank. Some US military assistance to Israel would be frozen if the State Department failed to issue the mandated report by the deadline.
Following release of the potential State Department’s report, “the Congress may at any time thereafter adopt a joint resolution terminating, restricting, or continuing security assistance for such country,” according to the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits US military aid to any country that “engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”
Cavan Kharrazian, senior policy adviser with the advocacy group Demand Progress, urged senators to back Van Hollen’s resolution, saying that “US taxpayers deserve answers about what happened and what our government is doing to prevent its military aid from fueling human rights violations and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.”
“We know that Americans have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers and that Palestinian children face detention and abuse in Israeli military custody,” said Kharrazian. “Demanding transparency and enforcing US laws governing military aid should be the bare minimum for any senator. This resolution is a long-overdue first step. Every senator should support it, then follow through by supporting resolutions to block any new arms sales to Israel.”
Amnesty International USA also expressed support for the resolution, saying in a Monday statement that it “provides an important opportunity to press the Trump administration on its policies and the lack of accountability for the Israeli government’s human rights abuses and violations of international law.”
“This vote comes at a critical juncture in the occupied Palestinian territory as Israel continues its ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians in the West Bank,” said Elizabeth Rghebi, the group’s advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa. “This campaign must also be understood as occurring within a broader context of Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, illegal occupation, and an apartheid system over all Palestinians.”
Last year, the Trump State Department—led by Marco Rubio—issued a sparse report on Israel’s human rights practices that said nothing about Israel’s annexation efforts, home demolitions, aiding of settler violence, and other abuses in the occupied West Bank.
Far from working to mitigate Israeli atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Trump administration is actively fueling them. Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that the administration is planning to send Israel tens of thousands of additional 2,000-pound bombs in what the newspaper described as “the largest single sale of the controversial munition in recent years.”
“For years, the US has failed to get justice for Americans—those killed in the West Bank and detained by the Israeli government—or accountability for Palestinians who are being brutalized with the government’s complicity,” Van Hollen wrote in a social media post on Monday. “This week I will force a vote on this resolution to get answers.”
Sep 29, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
The US Senate is expected to vote as soon as Tuesday evening on a resolution that would require the Trump administration to produce an official report on Israel’s human rights practices in the illegally occupied West Bank, where the US-backed Israeli government is engaging in large-scale land confiscations, displacing Palestinians en masse, and enabling deadly settler violence.
The Senate measure, known as S.Res.852, cites Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to formally request “an unclassified statement” from the US State Department “regarding Israel’s human rights practices.” The filibuster-proof resolution, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), notes that at least nine Palestinian Americans have been killed by Israeli settlers or security forces in the West Bank since 2022, and that “Israeli military authorities have detained, interrogated, prosecuted, and imprisoned approximately 13,000 Palestinian children” since 2000.
If passed by the Senate, Van Hollen’s resolution would require the State Department to produce a report within 30 days on the Israeli government’s human rights conduct in the West Bank. Some US military assistance to Israel would be frozen if the State Department failed to issue the mandated report by the deadline.
Following release of the potential State Department’s report, “the Congress may at any time thereafter adopt a joint resolution terminating, restricting, or continuing security assistance for such country,” according to the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits US military aid to any country that “engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”
Cavan Kharrazian, senior policy adviser with the advocacy group Demand Progress, urged senators to back Van Hollen’s resolution, saying that “US taxpayers deserve answers about what happened and what our government is doing to prevent its military aid from fueling human rights violations and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.”
“We know that Americans have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers and that Palestinian children face detention and abuse in Israeli military custody,” said Kharrazian. “Demanding transparency and enforcing US laws governing military aid should be the bare minimum for any senator. This resolution is a long-overdue first step. Every senator should support it, then follow through by supporting resolutions to block any new arms sales to Israel.”
Amnesty International USA also expressed support for the resolution, saying in a Monday statement that it “provides an important opportunity to press the Trump administration on its policies and the lack of accountability for the Israeli government’s human rights abuses and violations of international law.”
“This vote comes at a critical juncture in the occupied Palestinian territory as Israel continues its ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians in the West Bank,” said Elizabeth Rghebi, the group’s advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa. “This campaign must also be understood as occurring within a broader context of Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, illegal occupation, and an apartheid system over all Palestinians.”
Last year, the Trump State Department—led by Marco Rubio—issued a sparse report on Israel’s human rights practices that said nothing about Israel’s annexation efforts, home demolitions, aiding of settler violence, and other abuses in the occupied West Bank.
Far from working to mitigate Israeli atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Trump administration is actively fueling them. Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that the administration is planning to send Israel tens of thousands of additional 2,000-pound bombs in what the newspaper described as “the largest single sale of the controversial munition in recent years.”
“For years, the US has failed to get justice for Americans—those killed in the West Bank and detained by the Israeli government—or accountability for Palestinians who are being brutalized with the government’s complicity,” Van Hollen wrote in a social media post on Monday. “This week I will force a vote on this resolution to get answers.”
Despite Historic Support, Fetterman Joins GOP in Blocking Effort to Expose Israeli Abuses in West Bank
“Tonight, 47 senators supported my resolution to get accountability for the nine Americans killed on the West Bank and for Palestinians who face injustices daily,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen.
Israeli army soldiers stand behind a masked man hurling stones at Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, on October 10, 2025.
(Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Sep 30, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Democratic US Sen. John Fetterman joined nearly every Republican senator on Tuesday in voting against a resolution that would have required the Trump administration to produce an unclassified report on Israeli abuses in the illegally occupied West Bank, including the imprisonment and killing of Palestinian Americans.
The resolution, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), narrowly failed 47-51, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joining every Democrat except Fetterman in supporting the measure. Van Hollen and other supporters of the resolution lamented the failed vote but celebrated the historic support it received as public opposition to Israeli atrocities—and US funding of Israel’s military—continues to grow.
“Tonight, 47 senators supported my resolution to get accountability for the nine Americans killed on the West Bank and for Palestinians who face injustices daily,” Van Hollen wrote in a social media post. “That’s more support than we’ve ever had in this fight. Republicans blocked us, but we won’t stop until we get justice.”
In 2024, just 11 senators—all members of the Democratic caucus except Paul—backed a similar resolution led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
“Listen to the American people: NO MORE MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL,” Sanders wrote in response to Tuesday’s vote.
If passed, Van Hollen’s resolution would have required the US State Department to issue a report within 30 days on Israeli human rights practices in the West Bank, where Palestinians have faced a historic level of violence by Israeli settlers and soldiers this year.
The resolution, which invoked Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, specifically called on the Trump administration to provide “all credible information of which the Department of State is aware concerning the alleged killing of United States citizens by the Israel Defense Forces, other Israeli security forces, or Israeli settlers since January 1, 2022,” as well as “an assessment on any United States citizens currently held in Israeli prisons.”
Under the Foreign Assistance Act, a failure to produce the required report would have resulted in a freeze on some US military assistance to Israel.
Josh Ruebner, policy director at the IMEU Policy Project, said that while the resolution “narrowly failed” due to near-unanimous Republican opposition, “make no mistake: this is historic.”
The resolution’s text highlights the case of Sama Safi, a 20-year-old Palestinian American student with a chronic health condition who was abducted by Israeli forces during a West Bank raid in June and has reportedly been detained without charge for months.
On Tuesday morning, Zeteo highlighted the case of Abdalkareem Issa Ahmed Safi, “an American teenager with Texas roots” whom Israeli forces snatched “from his family’s West Bank home in the middle of the night” in late June. Zeteo noted that he is the third young American known to be “languishing in Israeli prison.”
“Only one Republican voted to even somewhat hold Israel accountable for acts like this,” Zeteo’s Prem Thakker wrote late Tuesday.
Israeli army soldiers stand behind a masked man hurling stones at Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, on October 10, 2025.
(Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Sep 30, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Democratic US Sen. John Fetterman joined nearly every Republican senator on Tuesday in voting against a resolution that would have required the Trump administration to produce an unclassified report on Israeli abuses in the illegally occupied West Bank, including the imprisonment and killing of Palestinian Americans.
The resolution, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), narrowly failed 47-51, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joining every Democrat except Fetterman in supporting the measure. Van Hollen and other supporters of the resolution lamented the failed vote but celebrated the historic support it received as public opposition to Israeli atrocities—and US funding of Israel’s military—continues to grow.
“Tonight, 47 senators supported my resolution to get accountability for the nine Americans killed on the West Bank and for Palestinians who face injustices daily,” Van Hollen wrote in a social media post. “That’s more support than we’ve ever had in this fight. Republicans blocked us, but we won’t stop until we get justice.”
In 2024, just 11 senators—all members of the Democratic caucus except Paul—backed a similar resolution led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
“Listen to the American people: NO MORE MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL,” Sanders wrote in response to Tuesday’s vote.
If passed, Van Hollen’s resolution would have required the US State Department to issue a report within 30 days on Israeli human rights practices in the West Bank, where Palestinians have faced a historic level of violence by Israeli settlers and soldiers this year.
The resolution, which invoked Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, specifically called on the Trump administration to provide “all credible information of which the Department of State is aware concerning the alleged killing of United States citizens by the Israel Defense Forces, other Israeli security forces, or Israeli settlers since January 1, 2022,” as well as “an assessment on any United States citizens currently held in Israeli prisons.”
Under the Foreign Assistance Act, a failure to produce the required report would have resulted in a freeze on some US military assistance to Israel.
Josh Ruebner, policy director at the IMEU Policy Project, said that while the resolution “narrowly failed” due to near-unanimous Republican opposition, “make no mistake: this is historic.”
The resolution’s text highlights the case of Sama Safi, a 20-year-old Palestinian American student with a chronic health condition who was abducted by Israeli forces during a West Bank raid in June and has reportedly been detained without charge for months.
On Tuesday morning, Zeteo highlighted the case of Abdalkareem Issa Ahmed Safi, “an American teenager with Texas roots” whom Israeli forces snatched “from his family’s West Bank home in the middle of the night” in late June. Zeteo noted that he is the third young American known to be “languishing in Israeli prison.”
“Only one Republican voted to even somewhat hold Israel accountable for acts like this,” Zeteo’s Prem Thakker wrote late Tuesday.
Violent Riot by Israeli Settlers Prevents Return of Displaced Palestinian Family
“Israeli officials are now condemning settler terror, but the state itself is backing this violence.”
A Palestinian boy looks at a burnt vehicle following an attack by Israeli settlers in the Jalud village of the illegally occupied West Bank on March 22, 2026.
(Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Sep 29, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
More than 100 Israeli settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank rioted in the early hours of Tuesday morning to prevent the return of a Palestinian family that was driven from its home in the village of Jalud.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which was forced by a court ruling to facilitate the Tubasi family’s return, said in a statement that rioting settlers “blocked roads,” “set fires” to structures and vehicles, and hurled rocks at security forces as they tried to escort the Tubasis. Haaretz reported that after IDF forces failed to prevent rampaging Israeli settlers from storming the family’s homes, “they put the family members into an armored military vehicle and evacuated them from the scene.”
One family member told Haaretz that “half an hour later, smoke began to rise from the homes.” The IDF said that three Israelis were detained for taking part in the riots.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has been accused of “actively enabling” mass violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, issued a statement early Tuesday condemning the attacks while downplaying them as the work of a “handful of rioters.”
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Tubasi family’s return “had been coordinated after they were previously forced to evacuate following attacks by extremist settlers.”
“The attempted return followed a September 6 High Court of Justice order requiring Israeli authorities to arrange within 14 days for three Palestinian petitioners and their families to return to their homes in Jalud,” the outlet added. “The court ordered the IDF and police to protect the families during the return and allow them to bring in supplies needed to repair the homes and restore water and electricity.”
Tuesday’s riots were just the latest eruption of violence in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers are committing attacks on Palestinians at an unprecedented rate, according to data from the United Nations.
“Israeli officials are now condemning settler terror, but the state itself is backing this violence,” said Breaking the Silence, an Israeli advocacy organization. “The Tubasi family had been expelled because the IDF backed terrorists who besieged their house for weeks. They allowed terrorists to roam free while barring journalists and solidarity activists from accessing them.”
“Even after committing a pogrom, the vast majority of them, if not all, will never be held accountable and will continue to terrorize Palestinians,” the group added. “Why? Because the state backs it.”
The settler attack came days after the leading Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem published a report characterizing the Israeli government’s actions in the West Bank, including large-scale land seizures, as “an elimination project,” noting that Israel has “sharply escalated longstanding policies of control, violence, and dispossession, implementing them more openly, more violently, and at a faster pace.”
“What Palestinians are living through in the West Bank is not a series of separate incidents,” said Yuli Novak, B’Tselem’s executive director. “It is a single political project that reaches into every part of life. Communities are being expelled, the economy is being pushed toward collapse, and millions are living in constant fear of Israeli military or settler violence.”
“These mechanisms work together to dismantle Palestinian collective life while entrenching a permanent system of Jewish supremacy across the West Bank,” Novak added. “The world is watching and still failing to respond with anything close to the urgency this demands.”
“Israeli officials are now condemning settler terror, but the state itself is backing this violence.”
A Palestinian boy looks at a burnt vehicle following an attack by Israeli settlers in the Jalud village of the illegally occupied West Bank on March 22, 2026.
(Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Sep 29, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
More than 100 Israeli settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank rioted in the early hours of Tuesday morning to prevent the return of a Palestinian family that was driven from its home in the village of Jalud.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which was forced by a court ruling to facilitate the Tubasi family’s return, said in a statement that rioting settlers “blocked roads,” “set fires” to structures and vehicles, and hurled rocks at security forces as they tried to escort the Tubasis. Haaretz reported that after IDF forces failed to prevent rampaging Israeli settlers from storming the family’s homes, “they put the family members into an armored military vehicle and evacuated them from the scene.”
One family member told Haaretz that “half an hour later, smoke began to rise from the homes.” The IDF said that three Israelis were detained for taking part in the riots.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has been accused of “actively enabling” mass violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, issued a statement early Tuesday condemning the attacks while downplaying them as the work of a “handful of rioters.”
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Tubasi family’s return “had been coordinated after they were previously forced to evacuate following attacks by extremist settlers.”
“The attempted return followed a September 6 High Court of Justice order requiring Israeli authorities to arrange within 14 days for three Palestinian petitioners and their families to return to their homes in Jalud,” the outlet added. “The court ordered the IDF and police to protect the families during the return and allow them to bring in supplies needed to repair the homes and restore water and electricity.”
Tuesday’s riots were just the latest eruption of violence in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers are committing attacks on Palestinians at an unprecedented rate, according to data from the United Nations.
“Israeli officials are now condemning settler terror, but the state itself is backing this violence,” said Breaking the Silence, an Israeli advocacy organization. “The Tubasi family had been expelled because the IDF backed terrorists who besieged their house for weeks. They allowed terrorists to roam free while barring journalists and solidarity activists from accessing them.”
“Even after committing a pogrom, the vast majority of them, if not all, will never be held accountable and will continue to terrorize Palestinians,” the group added. “Why? Because the state backs it.”
The settler attack came days after the leading Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem published a report characterizing the Israeli government’s actions in the West Bank, including large-scale land seizures, as “an elimination project,” noting that Israel has “sharply escalated longstanding policies of control, violence, and dispossession, implementing them more openly, more violently, and at a faster pace.”
“What Palestinians are living through in the West Bank is not a series of separate incidents,” said Yuli Novak, B’Tselem’s executive director. “It is a single political project that reaches into every part of life. Communities are being expelled, the economy is being pushed toward collapse, and millions are living in constant fear of Israeli military or settler violence.”
“These mechanisms work together to dismantle Palestinian collective life while entrenching a permanent system of Jewish supremacy across the West Bank,” Novak added. “The world is watching and still failing to respond with anything close to the urgency this demands.”
Battle Over Illegal E1 Settlement in Occupied West Bank Escalates a Month Before Israeli Election
Critics around the world continue to call the proposed settlement “a plan to progress the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”
Palestinian Bedouin children walk in the community of Khan al-Ahmar, near land Israel plans to use for its controversial E1 settlement, in the occupied West Bank.
(Photo by Ilia Yefimovich/AFP via Getty Images)
Jessica Corbett
Sep 27, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Israel’s far-right finance minister and other settlers living in the illegally occupied West Bank fumed on Sunday after their country’s attorney general pushed a key deadline for the widely condemned E1 project until after the Israeli Knesset election.
Although the International Court of Justice, plus governments and human rights groups around the world, have concluded that all Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory violate international law, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has charged ahead with expansion plans, granting final approval for the building of 3,401 housing units in the E1 area last year.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had celebrated that decision, declaring that the project “buries the idea of a Palestinian state,” as it would split the West Bank in two by connecting Jerusalem and the settlement Ma’ale Adumim. While signing a related agreement a year ago, Netanyahu similarly said that “there will be no Palestinian state.”
Despite an ongoing legal challenge to the E1 plan from Bedouin Palestinians who live in the area and Israeli peace groups, Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing last month issued a tender to build seven residential compounds with 1,234 units, giving contractors until October 19—a week before the October 27 election—to submit bids.
“This is a last-minute maneuver that is part of the scorched-earth policy the government is pursuing at the end of its term to secure long years of conflict and bloodshed for Israel,” the Israeli watchdog Peace Now said at the time. “The government is trying to sign contracts with contractors before the elections so that it will be much harder for the next government to cancel the construction.”
The office of Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara this week ordered a monthlong postponement of the deadline for bids, “so that it will fall after Election Day, thereby reducing the concern that the tender could be used for prohibited election propaganda.”
Smotrich on Sunday accused her of “trying to stop the construction in E1” and “interfering in the election campaign” to help Gadi Eisenkot, the Yashar party leader who could lead a coalition government that ousts Likud’s Netanyahu, depending on the results.
The finance minister called on Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who chairs the Central Elections Committee (CEC), to intervene to “ensure that the attorney general and her people do not turn into active players in the election campaign in an attempt to back up the left, prevent the right from forming a government, and to enable the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger the existence of the state of Israel.”
Ma’ale Adumim also challenged the attorney general’s move on Sunday, with a petition to the High Court of Justice. Mayor Guy Yifrach said that “if the claim is that continuing the tender is political, I say exactly the opposite: Stopping it now is an intervention with political implications.”
“The E1 plan is already facing heavy international pressure, and developers and contractors need certainty,” Yifrach added. “Is it not enough that outside Israel they are trying to deter them from the project, now we are adding uncertainty from within our home as well?”
Earlier this month, the United Kingdom, France, and Canada jointly announced bans on imports from illegal Israeli settlements, and partnered with nine other nations—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden—for a statement that describes the situation in the West Bank as “rapidly deteriorating amid unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project.”
Then, 19 US Senate Democrats on Wednesday introduced a bill to sanction people or companies that facilitate the construction for Israeli settlers in the E1 area, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), one of the lead co-sponsors, condemning the project as “a move towards de facto annexation of the West Bank.”
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), another lead sponsor and longtime supporter of Israel, said on social media Friday that “the Netanyahu campaign to extinguish the possibility of a future Palestinian state by building Israeli settlements in the E1 area of the West Bank must end. I’m leading a new effort to sanction those involved in its development and preserve a future pathway for peace.”
In addition to pushing for the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Netanyahu has overseen a genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Despite a ceasefire agreement reached nearly a year ago, Israeli attacks continue, and the official death toll keeps rising, topping 74,000 on Sunday.
The bleak milestone came two days after The New York Times corroborated Haaretz’s recent reporting that in September 2023, United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan warned Netanyahu about now-deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s plans “for a major event” targeting Israel. The Israeli leader has denied those reports, and even threatened to sue Haaretz.
However, in a signal that Netanyahu and his allies are worried about the upcoming election, the CEC this week voted to disqualify all Arab-majority political parties from the election, while declining to take similar action against Smotrich’s Religious Zionism, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit, and Zehut, founded by Moshe Feiglin, a former Likud member. The Supreme Court is set to review the disqualifications this week.
Meanwhile, Eisenkot suggested this weekend that the barred parties would not be part of any government he leads. As Haaretz summarized, he said that “all coalition partners would have to recognize Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, uphold the values of the Declaration of Independence, support mandatory military service, and recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization that must be destroyed.”
Yoav Segalovich from the United Arab List’s Knesset slate responded that anyone seeking to lead the country must “show leadership and not fold in the face of the Likud’s scare campaign,” adding: “Israel needs deep change and genuine partnership, through courageous leadership. Eisenkot will not have a government without the United Arab List.”
Critics around the world continue to call the proposed settlement “a plan to progress the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”
Palestinian Bedouin children walk in the community of Khan al-Ahmar, near land Israel plans to use for its controversial E1 settlement, in the occupied West Bank.
(Photo by Ilia Yefimovich/AFP via Getty Images)
Jessica Corbett
Sep 27, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Israel’s far-right finance minister and other settlers living in the illegally occupied West Bank fumed on Sunday after their country’s attorney general pushed a key deadline for the widely condemned E1 project until after the Israeli Knesset election.
Although the International Court of Justice, plus governments and human rights groups around the world, have concluded that all Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory violate international law, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has charged ahead with expansion plans, granting final approval for the building of 3,401 housing units in the E1 area last year.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had celebrated that decision, declaring that the project “buries the idea of a Palestinian state,” as it would split the West Bank in two by connecting Jerusalem and the settlement Ma’ale Adumim. While signing a related agreement a year ago, Netanyahu similarly said that “there will be no Palestinian state.”
Despite an ongoing legal challenge to the E1 plan from Bedouin Palestinians who live in the area and Israeli peace groups, Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing last month issued a tender to build seven residential compounds with 1,234 units, giving contractors until October 19—a week before the October 27 election—to submit bids.
“This is a last-minute maneuver that is part of the scorched-earth policy the government is pursuing at the end of its term to secure long years of conflict and bloodshed for Israel,” the Israeli watchdog Peace Now said at the time. “The government is trying to sign contracts with contractors before the elections so that it will be much harder for the next government to cancel the construction.”
The office of Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara this week ordered a monthlong postponement of the deadline for bids, “so that it will fall after Election Day, thereby reducing the concern that the tender could be used for prohibited election propaganda.”
Smotrich on Sunday accused her of “trying to stop the construction in E1” and “interfering in the election campaign” to help Gadi Eisenkot, the Yashar party leader who could lead a coalition government that ousts Likud’s Netanyahu, depending on the results.
The finance minister called on Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who chairs the Central Elections Committee (CEC), to intervene to “ensure that the attorney general and her people do not turn into active players in the election campaign in an attempt to back up the left, prevent the right from forming a government, and to enable the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger the existence of the state of Israel.”
Ma’ale Adumim also challenged the attorney general’s move on Sunday, with a petition to the High Court of Justice. Mayor Guy Yifrach said that “if the claim is that continuing the tender is political, I say exactly the opposite: Stopping it now is an intervention with political implications.”
“The E1 plan is already facing heavy international pressure, and developers and contractors need certainty,” Yifrach added. “Is it not enough that outside Israel they are trying to deter them from the project, now we are adding uncertainty from within our home as well?”
Earlier this month, the United Kingdom, France, and Canada jointly announced bans on imports from illegal Israeli settlements, and partnered with nine other nations—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden—for a statement that describes the situation in the West Bank as “rapidly deteriorating amid unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project.”
Then, 19 US Senate Democrats on Wednesday introduced a bill to sanction people or companies that facilitate the construction for Israeli settlers in the E1 area, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), one of the lead co-sponsors, condemning the project as “a move towards de facto annexation of the West Bank.”
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), another lead sponsor and longtime supporter of Israel, said on social media Friday that “the Netanyahu campaign to extinguish the possibility of a future Palestinian state by building Israeli settlements in the E1 area of the West Bank must end. I’m leading a new effort to sanction those involved in its development and preserve a future pathway for peace.”
In addition to pushing for the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Netanyahu has overseen a genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Despite a ceasefire agreement reached nearly a year ago, Israeli attacks continue, and the official death toll keeps rising, topping 74,000 on Sunday.
The bleak milestone came two days after The New York Times corroborated Haaretz’s recent reporting that in September 2023, United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan warned Netanyahu about now-deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s plans “for a major event” targeting Israel. The Israeli leader has denied those reports, and even threatened to sue Haaretz.
However, in a signal that Netanyahu and his allies are worried about the upcoming election, the CEC this week voted to disqualify all Arab-majority political parties from the election, while declining to take similar action against Smotrich’s Religious Zionism, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit, and Zehut, founded by Moshe Feiglin, a former Likud member. The Supreme Court is set to review the disqualifications this week.
Meanwhile, Eisenkot suggested this weekend that the barred parties would not be part of any government he leads. As Haaretz summarized, he said that “all coalition partners would have to recognize Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, uphold the values of the Declaration of Independence, support mandatory military service, and recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization that must be destroyed.”
Yoav Segalovich from the United Arab List’s Knesset slate responded that anyone seeking to lead the country must “show leadership and not fold in the face of the Likud’s scare campaign,” adding: “Israel needs deep change and genuine partnership, through courageous leadership. Eisenkot will not have a government without the United Arab List.”
