The Ma’aleh Adumim Municipality petitioned the High Court of Justice on Sunday against a legal opinion from the Attorney-General’s Office advising state authorities to postpone a tender for 1,234 homes to be built in the E1 settlement until after the October 27 election.
Legal advisers nevertheless said that the deadline should be delayed by one month because moving ahead with the politically sensitive project days before the vote could affect the election campaign. The municipality argued that the tender was approved and set in motion long before the election was called and that delaying it now would amount to political interference.
The Israel Land Authority and the Construction and Housing Ministry administer the tender and are responsible for setting or changing its timetable. The deadline currently is October 19.
The case concerns plans to build in E1, a largely undeveloped zoning area between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim. The tender covers 1,234 homes in seven residential compounds and is the first stage of a larger plan for approximately 3,400 housing units in E1.
The project has faced sustained international opposition. Critics say Israeli construction in the area would disrupt the territorial continuity of a potential Palestinian state and further separate east Jerusalem from other Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Supporters of the project say it is needed for Ma’ale Adumim to develop and would strengthen the city’s connection to Jerusalem.
Public authorities are restricted during election periods
The Attorney-General’s Office set out its position in a Friday email sent by senior justice ministry attorney Anat Asif Gil. The email summarized a discussion held earlier that month under two deputy attorneys-general.
The legal advisers examined whether allowing the tender to proceed on its existing timetable would be consistent with the restraint expected of public authorities during an election period.
Government bodies continue their ordinary work during an election campaign, but are expected to avoid taking steps that could use state powers or resources to give a political advantage. The legal test looks not only at who made a decision, but also at its timing, public impact and proximity to the election.
The Attorney-General’s Office acknowledged that the E1 tender did not begin during the campaign. Political approval was granted in October 2025, notice of the planned tender was published that December, the Housing Ministry’s Jerusalem district approved it on June 23, and the tender documents were completed in August.
The legal advisers nevertheless maintained that E1 could not be treated as an ordinary housing project because of its exceptional political and diplomatic sensitivity.
The October 19 deadline falls eight days before the October 27 election. According to the legal opinion, the submission of bids and the expected selection of developers soon afterward could become part of the campaign — even though the project itself was approved earlier. The office therefore advised the Israel Land Authority and Housing Ministry to move the deadline by one month.
Ma’ale Adumim disputes both that reasoning and the weight the government agencies should give the opinion.
Ma’aleh Adumim argues the tender does not need new approval from elected officials
The municipality argues that continuing the tender would not amount to a new policy decision during an election campaign. Rather, it would allow professional agencies to complete a process that had been underway for almost a year.
The restrictions applied during an election period are primarily intended to prevent an outgoing government from making major new decisions that could bind its successor or influence voters, the municipality said. They should not, it argued, be used to stop routine administrative and commercial work that does not require a fresh decision by elected officials.
The city also rejected the suggestion that proximity to the election was enough to justify a delay. The relevant question, it argued, is when the policy was adopted and the process began, not simply when its next stage is scheduled to take place.
The petition further argues that the Attorney-General’s Office provided legal advice on a matter that falls under the authority of the Israel Land Authority and Housing Ministry. Those agencies, the city said, should not treat the opinion as though it independently changed the tender or replaced their own decision-making powers.
Ma’ale Adumim Mayor Guy Yifrach said the decision to advance the tender had been made months before the election and had since moved through the ordinary professional process.
“If the claim is that continuing the tender is political, I say exactly the opposite: Stopping it now is an intervention with political implications,” he said.
Yifrach also said a postponement would create further uncertainty for developers at a time when the project is already facing heavy pressure from foreign governments.
The municipality has asked the High Court to require the state to explain why the tender should not continue according to its original timetable. It is also seeking an interim court order preventing the relevant government agencies from postponing the deadline on the basis of the legal opinion while the petition is being considered.
The new petition does not ask the High Court to decide whether construction in E1 is itself legal.
That question is being contested separately in three administrative petitions filed by Palestinian residents and the human rights organizations Ir Amim, Bimkom and Peace Now against the underlying building plans.
Earlier this month, Jerusalem District Court Judge Nimrod Flax declined to freeze the planning process while those petitions remain pending. The court found that actual construction remained sufficiently distant and noted the state’s commitment not to argue later that progress already made had rendered the petitions irrelevant. Prospective bidders were also informed that any rights arising from the tender would remain subject to the court’s final ruling.
The High Court gave until Thursday to file responses to the petition. Unless the Israel Land Authority and Housing Ministry change the timetable or the court intervenes, the deadline remains eight days before the election.
