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July 3, 2026

1. EAST JERUSALEM: E-1 Tenders Expected Aug 5th; Appeal to UN to Intervene in Israel’s Seizure of Church Land in Silwan; Huckabee Hosts Theatrical Ceremony for New U.S. Embassy in South Jerusalem
2. WEST BANK: Smotrich Announces Three New Settlements Ready to Go in Norther WB; Settlers Push Plan to Takeover 100 Sites in Area A; Report Looks at ‘103 Nails on the Map’
3. BONUS READS

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EAST JERUSALEM / JERUSALEM

E-1 Tenders Set to Open Aug. 5th

According to reports the Israeli government has set dates for the publication of two tenders for the construction of the E-1 settlement:

• On August 5th, the government will open a tender for the construction of 3,401settlement units. The tender will be open for two months, during which companies can bid on the project.
• On July 21st, a tender will be opened for the construction of an employment and commercial zone in the E-1 settlement area. The tender will close September 14th.

Ir Amim writes:

“The new dates were published despite the fact that petitions against the E1 settlement project remain pending before the District Court. These include a petition filed by Attorney Michael Sfard on behalf of Ir Amim, Bimkom and Peace Now. While the June 15th court hearing on the petitions delivered an interim positive outcome, there is currently no standing injunction to halt or freeze the opening of the tenders. The court ordered the state and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement municipality to file a detailed response to the petitions’ arguments by September 1, 2026, suggesting that the petitions’ core legal questions carry sufficient weight and warrant fuller deliberations. Therefore, the court declined the state’s request to dismiss the petitions outright, allowing them to proceed to the merits phase, after which it will issue a ruling.”

Terrestrial Jerusalem’s Danny Seidemann writes:

“Earlier this year, the Government published its intent to issue tenders for the construction of E-1, which was, to all intents and purposes, a declaration of intent. The actual tender process begins on the date upon which the tender documents are published. Before that date, contractors and developers do not have the details needed to file the copious documents required to submit a bid. That date has now been fixed. That means that the clock begins ticking on August 5, and the contractors and the developers will have until October 5th to submit their bids. Once a bid is selected and the contract awarded, it will be virtually impossible to stop E-1. Until now, the Government has been able to suspend all of its plans regarding E-1 at its sole discretion. Once the contracts are signed, third-party rights come into play, and reversing course on E-1 becomes almost impossible.

The countdown that begins on August 5th will culminate shortly after the end of the bidding period on October 5th, with the signing of contracts for the construction of E1, at which time the project will have reached the point of no return…

The new dates mean that the entire bidding period will take place in the heat of the upcoming Israeli elections. Firstly, this makes the already unlikely possibility of Netanyahu freezing E-1 even less likely. He is already consolidating his rather extreme right-wing base. Secondly, E-1 may become a wedge issue in the campaign. By touting the implementation of E-1, Netanyahu will force the opposition to take a stand on the plan – and that is the last thing the opposition would like to do. Regardless, there is little likelihood of significant and vocal opposition to E-1 during the election campaign.”

Palestinians Ask UN to Intervene Against Israel’s Seizure of Church Property

The Balasan Initiative has appealed to the UN Special Procedures to intervene against Israel’s seizure of Church property in Silwan, East Jerusalem (background here). The appeal asks the United Nations to urge Israel to restore possession of the land to the Greek Patriarchate.

Balasan Initiative writes:

“Notably, based on the latest developments and increased settlement expansion and forced evacuations in Silwan, there is an increasing likelihood that this seizure will be integrated into broader plans linked to the “City of David” and “King’s Garden” settlement project administered by entities affiliated with the Elad organization.

These indicate that the developments in Silwan are part of a broader and escalating pattern of attacks that seek to undermine the indigenous Christian presence in Palestine. Expressing serious concern over the growing incidents targeting Christians and churches, in the context of what it described as unacceptable international inaction, as that in 2024 alone, incidents of violence or attacks attributed to Israeli actors were documented against Christian clergy, nuns, worshippers, and church communities, including 35 cases directed at churches, monasteries, and religious symbols.”

 

U.S. Advances Construction of New Embassy on Stolen Palestinian Land in Southern Jerusalem

On July 1st U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar signed an agreement to build a new U.S. embassy compound in southern Jerusalem, to be built on a stolen plot of land confiscated from Palestinians by Israel in 1950. Palestinians have produced documentation showing the land is Palestinian refugee property confiscated by the Israeli authorities, and that the site was part of an Islamic waqf. Palestinians have sustained a campaign to prove these facts since at least 1989 when Israel first signed a lease on the land to the U.S.. 

Huckabee paid a single dollar to lease the plot, called the Allenby Compound, in a purely symbolic act of theater. In 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would move its Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Huckabee said at the ceremony:

“We are going to plant our flag, our American flag, on the soil of Jerusalem for a permanent and a brand-new embassy compound that will serve as our mothership of diplomatic activities here in Israel. I would say God made that decision 3,800 years ago, and we finally got around to acknowledging what had been determined long before the United States of America came along.”

Rashid Khalidi told Haaretz:

“The Allenby compound does not belong to Israel, which has no right to offer the site to the United States for the location of its embassy in Jerusalem.. [this] collaboration of the United States government with Israel in the theft of Palestinian private and waqf property is yet another American infringement on Palestinian rights, in keeping with a long and disgraceful record of such hostile behavior towards the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights, national, religious and private.” 

WEST BANK

Smotrich Says Three More New Settlements Are Imminent, Pushes for Total Annexation of Gaza

During a visit to the Israeli town Sderot near the Gaza boundary, Finance Minister Smotrich announced that Israel is ready to begin construction on a bloc of three new settlements in the northern West Bank pending a final green light from the Prime Minister.  Haaretz reports Smotrich appears to be referring to the settlements Elei Sinai, Dugit and Nisanit. Smotrich also called on the IDF to complete its conquest of the whole Gaza Strip.

 

Settlers Push “Execution Day” Plan to Seize 100 Sites in Area A

According to Al-Andalou Agency, Israel Hayom reports Israeli settler groups have a plan to seize 100 sites located in Area A of the West Bank, the 18% of the West Bank that the Palestinian Authority is supposed to have total administrative and security control over (but in reality, does not) and where Israeli settlement activity has only recently started to target. Settlers have prepared a plan to take the sites, calling for an “execution day” where Israel takes the sites by force.

The plan was reportedly authored by the Settler Farms Association and the Havat Forum, and handed to the Israeli government ministers for consideration. The Farms Association was recently sanctioned by a group of European governments

 

103 Nails on the Map and in the Two-State Coffin

Haaretz has published a deep dive report on the massive wave of settlements approved and constructed in the wake of October 7, 2023. The report, entitled “103 Nails on the Map: How Israel’s Government Is Burying the Two-state Solution” uses data and maps produced by Peace Now and Kerem Navot to show the overwhelming picture in totality, that Israel has undertaken sweeping efforts to fracture beyond repair any hope of a Palestinian state in the West Bank.

A supplementary article from the Haaretz Editorial Board entitled, “Israel Must Rid Itself of the Government Behind the Settler Revolution” the editors write:

“A special Haaretz project proves that the effort involves solidifying and deepening the splintering of the Palestinian territories, and confining them into increasingly smaller areas, while increasing the physical, social and economic disconnect among the enclaves. It’s a step in keeping with the principles of Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich’s “subjugation plan.” In addition, several phenomena have become apparent, some of which involve steps from which Israel had refrained for decades, and others that are entirely new…The person who promoted this revolution, including the terrorist arm on the ground, is Smotrich. But the person who appointed him and granted him the power, authority and resources and who gave him the green light was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. If Israel is to cherish life, it needs to rid itself of the settler, Kahanist government that he heads.”

FURTHER READING

1. “Escalating settler attacks raise displacement concerns in Dar Faza’a and East Tayba Bedouins” (OCHA OPT, 6/26/26)
2. “Israeli settlers and troops at the archaeological site of Sebastia” (Reuters, 6/29/26)
3. “‘I Am the Homeowner’ Armed Israeli Settlers Take Over Palestinian Home in PA-controlled Area B” (Haaretz, 6/28/26)
4. “Ben-Gvir tours East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhood under tight security” (Haaretz, 6/30/26)
5. “Israel strips the Hebron municipality of its planning powers, threatening to further erode the city’s Palestinian identity” (Mondoweiss, 6/28/26)
6. “Unshielded Childhood: Palestinian children and teenagers killed by Israel in the West Bank in 2025” (B’Tselem, June 2026)
7. “In His Own Words: Naftali Bennett Is Committed to Annexing the West Bank” (Haaretz, 6/30/2026)
8. “Eisenkot, What Will You Do About Settler Terror?” (Amira Hass in Haaretz, 6/30/26)