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August 21, 2026

1. WEST BANK: E-1 Tender Published; Kadim Settlement Reestablished; Groups File Petition to Stop West Bank Land Registration; Ben Gvir Wants WB Powers
2. STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM: Qusra, Al-Mughayyir, Sa’ir
3. BONUS READS

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WEST BANK

Israel Publishes Construction Tender for Dooms-Day E-1 Settlement

On August 18th, the Israeli Lands Authority published one tender for the construction of 1,234 settlement units in the E-1 settlement, planned to be built on a stretch of land east of Jerusalem that would split the West Bank in half and entirely surround East Jerusalem with Israeli settlement areas. Now, construction companies will bid on the construction project, with the bidding set to end on October 19th – just 8 days before the scheduled Israeli elections.

A petition against the E-1 settlement plan remains pending at the Jerusalem District Court, a petition which was filed on behalf of the bedouin communities living on the lands where E-1 is planned and which stand to be forcibly displaced to make way for the new settlement. Ir Imim explains that as part of the ongoing proceedings the State is required to provide notices to the petitioners ahead of the publication of tenders on the project, but the State provided no such notice ahead of the publication of one tender on August 18th. Ir Amim speculates that 

“The 1,234 units represent nearly half of the 3,401 units approved for the E1 project. Rather than opening the existing tender (No. 460/2025) which covers the entire approved number of housing units, the State has just issued a new and separate tender for only part of the overall total and opened it immediately for bidding. This move appears to have been intentionally designed to mislead the public and circumvent the State’s commitment to provide advance notice made in ongoing court proceedings.

It it should be underscored that even this partial implementation would create irreversible facts on the ground, fundamentally altering the geographic and strategic character of the area — severing the northern West Bank from the south and isolating East Jerusalem.”
The bedouin petitioners, which are represented and joined by several Israeli groups including Peace Now, Ir Amim, and Bimkom, have filed a request that the Jerusalem District Court issue an interim injunction to freeze the tender and to prevent the government from issuing any additional tenders until the petition has been settled by the Court.

An array of Western governments have also stepped up their efforts to pressure Israel to stop the construction. Most notably, the European Union is reported to have prepared a slate of sanctions against Israeli commerce, academics and security companies and will start demanding products from Israel be labelled as “Made in Israel” in addition to its existing requirements that settlement producers be labelled clearly “Product from the West Bank (Israeli settlement).”

Peace Now explains the significance of the E-1 plan:

“When announcing the E1 plan in August 2025, Bezalel Smotrich was explicit: ‘This reality definitively buries the idea of a Palestinian state.’

E1 sits at one of the most strategically consequential points in the West Bank, between East Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim.

Building there would connect Ma’ale Adumim more closely to Jerusalem, cut East Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank, and fracture Palestinian territorial continuity between north and south.

That is why E1 has been treated for decades as a red line. Once built, it would reshape the West Bank’s geography in a way that could make a viable two-state agreement much harder to achieve.”

 

Ministers Celebrate Re-Establishment of Kadim Settlement, Completing Erasure of 2005 Disengagement from Northern West Bank

Settler leaders continued the string of celebrations at new settlements in the northern West Bank, this time at the settlement of Kadim – one of the four settlements dismantled by the Israeli government in 2005 but now, after years of settler advocacy and legal backbending, are being re-established. Kadim is the last of the four settlements to be reestablished, and Ynet reports thirty families moved into the Kadim settlement this week. Kadim is located east of Jenin, and is amongst the 19 new settlements between Jenin and Nablus, which are designed to affect the total fragmentation of the northern West Bank.

Speaking at a ceremony attended by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana a, settler leader Yossi Dagan said:

“The spirit of settlement and the people of Israel are stronger than any withdrawal/ We are not only bringing life back to Kadim, but rewriting the future of northern Samaria through construction, expansion and a firm hold on our land. This is a determined Zionist response that makes clear: We have returned home, and this time to stay and grow twentyfold. We are raising the flag again, closing the circle and continuing to build Samaria with full force.”

 

Groups File Petition to Stop West Bank Land Registration

Yesh Din reports that it joined Bimkom and ACRI to file a petition against the Israeli government’s plan to conduct land registration – via a process called Settlement of Land Title (SOLT) – in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Specifically the petition, filed in June 2026, challenges the government’s move to outsource the registration process to a private company by opening a tender for the job. The petition came weeks after the government announced that it launched an electronic registration system for the “Land Registry and Settlement of Rights” for Area C of the West Bank. The online system is an instrument for the implementation of a February 2026 decision by the Israeli Security Cabinet to publish the West Bank land registry and to revive a “State Land Acquisition Committee.” These moves are best understood as a way to annex the West Bank, to help facilitate settler claims over disputed and/or unregistered land, and to spur the proactive government purchases of West Bank land for the purpose of settlement expansion. 

Yesh Din explains:

“The petition challenges the tender arguing that the Ministry of Justice lacks any legal authority to conduct land registration in the West Bank, much less authority to delegate this power to other parties, where such powers remain under the military commander as per prescribed International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Moreover, land registration proceedings in the West Bank have been suspended since 1968 and the tender seeks to implement a future government policy before the necessary legal changes have been enacted.

The petition further argues that the tender is unlawful on several grounds. First, it constitutes the privatization of core governmental powers by transferring public functions to a private entity. Second, it discriminates against Palestinians residing in the West Bank by unlawfully excluding them from participating as it is conducted under Israeli domestic procurement law rather than the military legal framework under IHL. The petition contends that comprehensive land registration may only take place with permanent sovereign authority and risks facilitating the appropriation of Palestinian land.

Alongside these principal claims, the petition requested an interim injunction to freeze the tender process before contracts are awarded and irreversible facts are created on the ground. Although the District Court acknowledged that the petition raises distinct legal questions, it postponed ruling on the injunction pending developments in those separate proceedings.  Unfortunately, the HCJ has also decided not to issue an injunction at this time, thus, allowing the tender process to continue and create irreversible administrative and legal realities before the courts have had an opportunity to determine its legality.”

 

Following Katz’s Call for Civilian Policing in West Bank, Ben-Gvir Wants Even More Power

Following his call last week to transfer all civilian law enforcement powers with regard to Israeli settlers from the domain of the Civil Administration to the Israeli police, Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir (who is the head of the Israeli police) has upped the stakes – and called assume total responsibility for the West Bank, specifically asking for authority to hold enemies of the state in detention without trial (administrative detention).

 

STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM

Major Settler Attacks this Week: Qusra, Al-Mughayyir, Sa’ir

Settlers continued to terrorize the West Bank, including major attacks on the following towns:

• Qusra: Settlers continued their no 13-day siege on several Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra.The situation of the Palestinian families trapped in their homes with little to no ability to receive visitors and supplies continues to deteriorate. 
• Al-Mughayyir: Settlers attacked the village of Al-Mughayyir near Ramallah, leaving six Palestinians injured. According to reports, dozens of settlers attacked Palestinians working their land by firing tear gas at them. Al-Mughayyir has been near constantly terrorized by settlers, leading +972 Magazine to call the village “a laboratory of Israeli ethnic cleansing.”
• Sa’ir: Settlers opened fire on Palestinians, killing one Palestinian teenager and wounding another man. The settlers were reportedly on a “hike” in the area (which is in Area B) and Palestinians gathered to throw stones at the settlers to get them to leave. Settlers also allegedly set fire to one building in Sa’ir. Some reports suggest that Israeli security officials might have fired the deadly shot.
• Taybeh: Settlers and uniformed Israeli soldiers have continued to regularly terrorize the village of Taybeh, where the Israeli army has issued a closed military order on the whole village. In practice, this order has allowed the IDF to prevent activists and humanitarians from entering the village while still allowing settlers to carry out their violence.

BONUS READS

1. “Israel-Backed Settler Violence Drives Displacement: Record Year for Settler Attacks on Palestinians” (Human Rights Watch, 8/21/2026)
2. “Israel’s roadblocks are choking emergency care in the West Bank” (972 Magazine, 8/13/2026)
3. “‘Destroying agriculture is the purpose’: How Israel is drying up the West Bank’s most fertile farmlands” (Mondoweiss, 8/18/2026)
4. “There Is No Israeli Settlement Without Violence – Even the ‘Mainstream’ Ones” (Haaretz, 8/17/2026)
5. “Violent Israeli settlers want to provoke a Palestinian uprising” (The Economist, 8/17/2026)
6. “Besieged by Israeli settlers and cut off from the outside world, Palestinian families on a West Bank hilltop refuse to leave” (Mondoweiss, 8/21/2026)