A move to increase an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank by over 3,500 housing units has been called a “total disregard for Palestinian self-determination” by an English bishop.
Ma’ale Adumim is an urban Israeli settlement with over 36,000 residents located in the West Bank and named a city in 1991.
It is located just over 4 miles from Jerusalem, and if expanded it would threaten the unity of the West Bank in an independent State of Palestine.
On August 20, Israel’s Higher Planning Council gave final approval for 3,753 housing units for the settlement project in the occupied West Bank, including 3,401 in Ma’ale Adumim.
The project seeks to link settlements and separate the West Bank from East Jerusalem, which was declared a part of Israel after the Six Day War in 1967. The annexation of East Jerusalem has not been recognized by the international community.
The Bishops of the International Affairs department of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England Wales condemned the move Israeli officials and is appealing for the international community to assert pressure to stop further settlement expansion and settler violence.
“We condemn the decision of the Higher Planning Council that has given its final approval to thousands of new homes in the E1 area – a plan that Israel’s finance minister states will ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state’ by splitting the West Bank in two,” said a statement by Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Chair of the Department for International Affairs, and Bishop Jim Curry, Lead Bishop for the Holy Land for the English and Welsh bishops.
Read more: https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-middle-east/2025/08/british-bishops-condemn-israeli-plan-to-expand-settlement-in-west-bank
