Israel is moving forward with controversial plans to build thousands of new housing units in the occupied West Bank, splitting the territory in two, a scheme far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said would “permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”

The E1 settlement project, frozen for decades because of vociferous international opposition, would connect Jerusalem to the settlement of Maale Adumim, making a future Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem virtually impossible. It would also split the West Bank in half, preventing the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state .

Smotrich announced the pending approval of 3,401 new housing units on Thursday in a press conference held on the site of the planned construction.

“They will talk about a Palestinian dream, and

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