Israeli authorities advanced 107 settlement construction plans in occupied Jerusalem during 2025, according to official Palestinian data. The most concerning of these plans is reportedly the ‘E1’ project, located east of the city.
The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission’s annual report, which monitors Israeli violations in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, stated that planning committees linked to the Israeli occupation reviewed these 107 structural plans. Forty-one of these plans are located outside the boundaries of the Israeli municipality, while 66 are within settlements inside the boundaries the municipality has drawn for Jerusalem.
These plans are part of a larger set of 265 structural plans considered across the West Bank, aimed at constructing a total of 34,979 settlement units on an area of 33,448 dunams (a dunam equals 1,000 square meters), according to the report.
The Commission further stated that in 2025, approvals were granted for the construction of 20,850 of the units included in the reviewed plans, with the remaining units undergoing approval processes.
The ‘E1’ plan, approved in August after a 30-year delay, is considered particularly dangerous. The Commission asserts that with the approval of this plan, the Israeli occupation has implemented the first phase of the ‘Greater Jerusalem’ plan. This plan aims to annex three major settlement blocs to the Jerusalem municipality’s area of influence: the Ma’ale Adumim bloc (effectively being integrated into the city), the Givat Ze’ev bloc (northeast), and the Gush Etzion bloc (south).
The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission argues that the occupation is intensifying its efforts to separate Jerusalem from its Palestinian context, transforming it into a demographic and geographic extension of the Jewish presence within the municipality’s borders and the settlement presence outside those borders. The report also highlights that 2025 saw tenders issued for the construction of 10,098 new settlement units in the West Bank, including over 7,000 units for the Ma’ale Adumim settlement.
