NEW YORK – Five European nations on Monday warned businesses not to seek contracts for Israel’s E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank.
Denmark, Greece, France, Latvia, and the UK-collectively known as the E5 group on the UN Security Council-issued the joint statement ahead of a scheduled meeting to discuss Palestine. The group characterized the project as a “deliberate and direct attack” on the viability of a Palestinian state, warning that the development risks unprecedented annexation and forced displacement.
The E1 project involves a tract of land located east of Jerusalem. While the area has been under consideration for development for more than two decades, previous U.S. administrations had applied pressure to keep the project frozen. However, Israel has now approved more than 3,400 housing units for the site.
“The E1 settlement development would divide the West Bank in two, further separate East Jerusalem and constitute a deliberate and direct attack on the viability and contiguity of an independent and sovereign Palestinian State,” the E5 group stated. The five countries said any commercial participation in the project risked entangling companies in activities they described as inconsistent with international law and their governments’ own guidance on responsible business conduct in conflict-affected areas.
Legal and Diplomatic Stakes Around E1
The E1 corridor lies between East Jerusalem and the large Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc. Diplomats and UN officials have long warned that large-scale construction there could sever the territorial contiguity of the West Bank and undermine prospects for a negotiated two-state outcome, which remains the stated framework of most international peace efforts.
European diplomats also pointed to existing UN Security Council resolutions-including Resolution 2334, which states that Israeli settlements in occupied territory have “no legal validity”-as the governing framework for their warning. They stressed that businesses weighing tenders or contracts linked to E1 should factor in potential legal, reputational, and sanctions risks as governments refine policies on corporate conduct in occupied territories.
Displacement and Humanitarian Impact
During a briefing to the Security Council, Itay Epshtain, special adviser on international law at the Norwegian Refugee Council, provided field assessments regarding Palestinian families displaced in the West Bank. His intervention was framed as evidence of how settlement expansion and related policies translate into daily pressures on communities living in and around strategic areas such as E1.
Epshtain reported that these families are facing:
- Deteriorating shelter conditions
- Collapsing livelihoods
- Repeated displacement
According to Epshtain, more than 70 per cent of displaced households reported threats against women and children, including sexualised threats.
He testified that the process of forcible transfer “does not always announce itself with a single order,” but instead occurs through “accumulated coercion, attacks, demolished homes, lost livelihoods and absent protection.”
Epshtain called on the council to put Israel “on notice” in its capacity as the “occupying power,” a status that, he said, carries obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention governing the protection of civilians in wartime.
“Forced displacement persists because the international response remains fragmented,” Epshtain said. “We are not asking this council to invent a new law. We are asking it to apply the law it has already affirmed.”
Allegations of State-Encouraged Violence
The Security Council also heard testimony via video link from Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti. Barghouti accused the Israeli government of actively encouraging settler violence through the use of legislation and Hebrew-language media, alleging a permissive climate for attacks on Palestinians and their property.
Barghouti further alleged that international complicity exists in the form of US-based charities fundraising to provide military-grade weapons to Israeli settlers in the West Bank. She urged member states to review their domestic oversight of nonprofit fundraising and arms export controls to ensure that, in her words, “their laws are not being used to shield or subsidize violence on the ground.”
The statements were delivered as part of the proceedings for the UN Security Council meeting on Palestine, where member states are weighing whether and how to respond to the E1 plans in upcoming resolutions, council statements, or national-level policy measures.
