World leaders have fought this Israeli 'doomsday' settlement plan in the West Bank for decades. But now it's just 'two pen strokes' away and some are worried the war in Gaza could change everything.
The decades-old blueprint that could make or break hopes for lasting peace in the Middle East.But today, the reality for him and the 300 others in the Bedouin community of Jabal Al Baba is very different.
A proposal to kick the Bedouins out and construct a new road and a few thousand homes for Israelis has hung over their heads for 30 years. To understand why this tiny pocket of land is so important to Israelis and Palestinians, some history helps. There are more than 100 Israeli settlements throughout the Israeli-controlled Area C in the West Bank. Boundaries are based on data from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.It is estimated more than half a million Israelis live in them, often enjoying substantially superior amenities and infrastructure compared to their Palestinian neighbours.
E1 is between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim. It is shaded here in orange along with established Israeli settlements and outposts in East Jerusalem and Area C in the West Bank. Boundaries are based on data from UN OCHA, Ir Amim and Peace Now.The most recent plans for E1 could see more than 3,000 Israeli dwellings built. They only need approval from two top-level officials before construction can begin.
"Today we are in a situation where it's not one minute to midnight, it's 15 seconds to midnight, because with two strokes of a pen, E1 can become a done deal," Mr Seidemann says.Although it hasn't yet been annexed, E1 is under full Israeli control and has been since the country's military occupation of the West Bank began in 1967.
According to the OCHA, about 4,500 Bedouins live in the E1 area and its periphery, across 10 communities.Some ultra-orthodox and nationalist Israelis move to the West Bank for spiritual reasons, pointing to the fact the area contains some of Judaism's holiest sites and thousands of years of religious history. For them, settling is cast as a supreme act of return.
The Israel-built barrier that separates Jerusalem from the West Bank — something already ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice — could also be moved to swallow the nearby settlements. In a sign of how tense things have become, in February, one Israeli was killed and eight were wounded when three Palestinian men opened fire on their vehicles during morning peak hour at a checkpoint outside Ma'ale Adumim.Shortly after the attack, Israel's right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in a settlement, announced a plan to expand Ma'ale Adumim with 2,350 new dwellings.
Still, a two-state solution remains the foreign policy of many Western countries, including Australia. His coalition government is reliant on support from ultra-orthodox and far-right parties. It's continued to build settlements while the war in Gaza has raged. "You have all of these irreparable and irreversible moves that Israel has created like building more settlements and seizing more land."
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