Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is advancing a longstanding illegal settlement plan in the occupied West Bank which would split the region and “permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state,” the minister said.

Under the plan, Israel will build more than 3,000 homes on stolen Palestinian land in the E1 settlement area . The settlements would cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied West Bank, connecting Jerusalem to an existing illegal settlement, Maale Adumim. East Jerusalem is widely recognized by Palestinian authorities and allies as the site for the capital of a Palestinian state.

“This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize,” said Smotrich in remarks Thursday. “Anyone in the wor

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