Few pieces of land carry as much weight as the 12 square kilometres known as E1. It is an unremarkable stretch of hillside on a map, but for critics of Israel’s settlement policy it is the place where the two-state solution could be decided without negotiation, vote, or treaty.

E1 lies between occupied East Jerusalem and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc. That location is the point. Building there would create a continuous belt of Israeli construction across the central West Bank, cutting the northern part of the territory off from the south and further separating East Jerusalem from the rest of the Palestinian territory.

The plan was originally envisaged at roughly 3,400 housing units and has now reached the tendering stage. Tenders were issued for 1,234 units in August and another 2,167 in September, which means all the planned units are now on the market. Whatever one thinks of the politics, this is no longer a drawing-board proposal.

The legal objection rests on a principle that predates this conflict: territory cannot be acquired by force, and an occupying power may not transfer its civilian population into occupied land. UN Security Council Resolution 2334 applied this to the present case, affirming that Israeli settlements in territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of international law.

The UN has warned that E1 would undermine the viability of a contiguous Palestinian state because it aims to create irreversible facts on the ground. The argument is practical as much as legal. A state needs connected territory, and a patchwork of enclaves divided by settlement blocs and roads is not a viable state, whatever it is called.

Critics describe this as a strategy of faits accomplis: build first, and let the finished buildings make any future negotiation moot. Advocates........

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