MAALE ADUMIM: Israel’s far-right finance minister announced a contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday which Palestinians and rights groups worry will scuttle plans for a future Palestinian state by effectively cutting the West Bank into two separate parts. The announcement comes as many countries said they would recognize a Palestinian state in September. “This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

MAALE ADUMIM: Israel’s far-right finance minister announced a contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday which Palestinians and rights…

MAALE ADUMIM: Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said work would start on a long-delayed settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut if off from East…

Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich announced approval for 3,401 new homes in the controversial E1 area project in the occupied West Bank.

“This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize," Bezalel Smotrich said.

Israel’s ultra-nationalist ministers push through plans for annexation in defiance of Western leaders

A Israeli housing project in the West Bank mothballed since 2012 was revived by the finance minister in a quest to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israeli Finance Minister approves settlement plan dividing East Jerusalem from West Bank, burying Palestinian state idea, sparking international backlash.

Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has said he believes E1 plan will ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state’

Next week, the cabinet is expected to give final approval to a construction plan for the E1 region, which would cut the West Bank in two, separating the northern part from the…

Israel advances controversial E1 settlement plan, sparking condemnation and fears it will lead to ‘many more years of bloodshed’.