France, Italy, Britain and Germany have jointly condemned a major settlement project in the West Bank and called on Israel to end settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territory.The joint statement by the major European powers came after the Israeli government announced it would open up construction tenders for a residential property project called E1 in the occupied West Bank."At a time of grave instability in the West Bank with unprecedented levels of violence by settlers against civilians, and serious restrictions on the Palestinian economy, this decision is even more concerning," the countries said in a joint statement.They urged Israel "to retract these plans immediately and end its expansion of settlements in the West Bank"."The decision by the Israeli government to publish bid offers for construction projects within the framework of the E1 settlers' project is unacceptable."The planned E1 development sits in the occupied West Bank just outside Jerusalem. (ABC News)Plans to develop the E1 project, a 12-square-kilometre area on the outskirts of Jerusalem, are decades old but never been formally proceeded with.However, the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas revived Israeli ambitions.The development would kick the local Bedouin community out and replace it with 3,401 homes and a new road.In January this year the Israeli government announced plans to start construction, and authorities opened bidding to construct more than 1,200 homes in the area this week.UK Foreign Minister David Miliband said he delivered the joint message directly to his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar.Mr Saar then responded publicly on social media site X, saying he rejected "outright" Mr Miliband's statement and "the patronising tone of his words"."The Jewish people have the right to live throughout the Land of Israel, just as the British have the right to live in London and throughout the United Kingdom," Mr Saar wrote.At the time, far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich said the development of E1 would "bury" the idea of a Palestinian state.Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Ir Amim, told the ABC in January that the plans would effectively break the West Bank in two."It would mean there's no Palestinian contiguity and there's no way to create a viable Palestinian state," he said.Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have settled among millions of Palestinians in land captured by Israel in a 1967 war.Nearly all countries and a range of UN bodies consider that such settlements violate international law.Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.ABC/AFP/Reuters