'Construction in E1 is annexation in its clearest form'

85 House Dems urge Trump to back up anti-annexation rhetoric with action against E1 settlements

In letter to Rubio obtained by ToI, US lawmakers warn ‘window for meaningful intervention’ against project, which cuts off Palestinians in the West Bank, is rapidly closing

Eighty-five Democrats in the US House of Representatives signed onto a letter urging President Donald Trump’s administration to back up its rhetoric against Israeli annexation of the West Bank with action in order to prevent the rapidly approaching construction of the controversial E1 project that would severely undermine Palestinian territorial contiguity beyond the Green Line.

“We write to strongly urge the administration to use every available diplomatic tool to halt the advancement of settlement construction in the E1 area of the West Bank,” reads the letter, obtained by The Times of Israel, which was organized by progressive Reps. Mark Pocan and Jan Schakowsky, and which was sent to Rubio on Friday.

Trump last year declared that he wouldn’t allow Israel to annex the West Bank, the letter recalls. It argues that “construction in E1 is annexation in its clearest form.”

Construction of a settlement in the 12-square-kilometer corridor east of Jerusalem would bisect the West Bank and cut off Palestinian communities in Ramallah from those in Bethlehem, while completing an unbroken band of Israeli-controlled territory from Jerusalem through E1 to the Ma’ale Adumim city settlement.

“In doing so, it would cement Israeli sovereignty over the geographic heart of the West Bank,” the letter states.

Given that the Democrats don’t currently control Congress or the White House, the letter is likely to be ignored. However, the party could take over at least one body of Congress after the November midterms, giving it more power to influence foreign policy.

Moreover, Pocan and Schakowsky’s ability to secure the support of both progressive and more moderate lawmakers in the party highlights the consensus among Democrats against Israeli settlement expansion. This could further complicate US ties with Jerusalem if the party returns to the White House in two and a half years.

The number of Democrats who signed onto the letter was still short of a majority of the 212 members in the House, with some of the most centrist members holding off on joining, along with the most hardline progressives, for whom the letter may not have gone far enough.

Those who did sign on included prominent progressive Reps. Rosa DeLauro, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Greg Casar and Jamie Raskin. Joining them were several more moderate Democrats who are less known for harshly criticizing Israel, such as Reps. Seth Moulton, Mike Levin and Jason Crow

Arguing that the E1 project “has reached a critical and final inflection point,” the Democratic lawmakers note that Israeli authorities have in recent months granted final approval for the construction of 3,401 homes in the area, and this past Monday were supposed to open the project for contractor bids.

To date, the tender has not yet been opened, leaving open the possibility that the government will issue an official postponement notice.

The delay in the plan’s advancement came weeks after a warning issued by Italy, France, Britain and Germany last month that businesses that bid for construction tenders in E1 or other settlement developments face “legal and reputational consequences… including the risk of involving themselves in serious breaches of international law.”

In addition to the advancement of E1, the Democratic lawmakers also called out the Israeli government’s advancement of plans to pave what it dubs a “Sovereignty Road” that would permanently divert all Palestinian vehicle traffic away from E1, effectively sealing off roughly 3 percent of the West Bank to Palestinian access, and potentially enabling the displacement of dozens of Palestinian Bedouin communities living in the area.

Those hamlets include Khan al-Ahmar, which has long been under threat of demolition by Israeli authorities due to its location adjacent to the E1 community. Far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich last month ordered authorities to begin preparations to demolish Khan al-Ahmar, in response to a report that the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court had requested an arrest warrant be issued against him.

The planned construction in E1, the paving of the Sovereignty Road and the order to demolish Khan al-Ahmar “are mutually reinforcing and are being advanced concurrently and urgently, a coordinated effort to establish irreversible facts on the ground,” the letter to Rubio states.

“We strongly urge the State Department to communicate clearly — and at the highest levels — that the United States views the acceptance of these construction bids as a direct contradiction of the president’s stated policy, and that you use every diplomatic tool at your disposal to halt this process before any bids are awarded,” the lawmakers add.

The West Bank settlement movement recorded an unprecedented year of advancement in 2025, with records broken — and in some cases surpassed by wide margins — across multiple measures of expansion in the contested territory, according to figures from an anti-settlement watchdog.

An annual review by the Peace Now organization earlier this year found that a record number of legal settlements were either approved or retroactively legalized in 2025; a record number of illegal settlement outposts were established; a record number of housing units were approved in the planning process; and tenders for the construction of a record number of housing units were published.