The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday allowed a tender for 1,234 homes in the E1 area to move forward, but did not decide whether the underlying construction plans are legal.
That means the government may continue looking for developers, but the ruling is not final approval for construction. Three petitions challenging the E1 plans remain before the court, which could still cancel or change them.
E1 is a largely undeveloped area between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim. Its location has made it one of the most disputed construction projects in the West Bank.
Supporters say building there will strengthen the connection between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who holds authority over civilian affairs in the West Bank, has also presented the project as a way to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Opponents say Israeli construction in the area would interrupt Palestinian territorial continuity between the northern and southern West Bank and further separate east Jerusalem from surrounding Palestinian communities.
Judge rejected request to freeze the tender
Judge Nimrod Flax rejected a request by Palestinian residents and Israeli rights groups to freeze the tender until those
Judge Nimrod Flax rejected a request by Palestinian residents and Israeli rights groups to freeze the tender until those petitions are decided.
A temporary freeze is intended to prevent something irreversible from happening before a court can rule on the main case. Flax found that no such danger existed at this stage because construction is still far away.
Contractors have until October 19 to bid for the project. Their proposals must then be examined, winners selected, and building permits obtained before work can begin.
Flax said the court was likely to decide the petitions before any physical change took place at the site.
The state has also promised that it will not later argue that the tender has progressed too far for the court to intervene. Prospective contractors have been warned that the project is under legal challenge and that any rights they receive will depend on the final ruling.
In other words, a company may win the tender but cannot rely on that victory if the court later cancels the plans.
Palestinian residents file a request to freeze the tender from proceeding
The request for a freeze was filed by Palestinian residents and the organizations Ir Amim, Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights, and Peace Now.
They argued that allowing the tender to advance would draw private developers into the project and make it increasingly difficult to stop. If contracts were signed before the petitions were decided, they said, the court might be left with fewer practical ways to remedy any problems it found.
The petitioners also accused the government of rushing to advance the project before the October 27 election.
The tender was published on August 18 without advance notice, despite an earlier undertaking by state attorneys to alert the petitioners before it was issued. The petitioners described the move as an attempt to create facts on the ground before the election and before the court could intervene.
The state acknowledged that its lawyers had not been informed before the tender was published because of an internal error. It argued, however, that the promise to provide notice was informal and that the mistake did not justify stopping the tender.
It also maintained that the danger described by the petitioners was still theoretical, as no bids had yet been submitted, no developers had been selected, and no construction was imminent.
Ma’aleh Adumim Municipality, which also opposed a freeze, submitted aerial images that it said showed that the area covered by the tender was empty of buildings. It agreed to notify the court seven days before physical development begins if the petitions have not been decided by then.
Petitioners say the project would force Palestinian communities from surrounding area
The petitioners argue that the harm cannot be measured only by whether buildings currently stand on the specific construction plots. They say the wider E1 project would eventually force Palestinian and Bedouin communities from the surrounding area and lead to home demolitions.
Tuesday’s ruling addressed only whether the tender had to be paused while those claims are examined.
The three main petitions challenge two plans for approximately 3,400 homes in E1. They allege that the plans were approved through a defective and discriminatory process that failed to properly consider their effect on nearby Palestinian communities.
The state and Ma’aleh Adumim reject those allegations and argue that the plans were lawfully approved. They say stopping the project would delay housing and development intended to meet the needs of the area’s growing population.
The court previously refused to freeze the plans in October and November 2025. In June, however, it declined to dismiss the petitions and ordered the state to answer them in detail.
The petitioners argued that the June order showed that their case had gained strength. Flax rejected that interpretation, explaining that asking the state for a full response was a procedural step and nothing more.
Those larger questions remain unresolved. The tender may continue for now, but the project remains subject to the court’s final decision.
Separately on Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband accused settlers of carrying out ethnic cleansing in parts of the West Bank, saying the Israeli government had too often turned a blind eye and that some of its members had supported forced displacement. He separately cited E1 as a project that would cut across land sought for a future Palestinian state and put a two-state solution at risk.
Reuters and Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.
