Israel has begun construction on a vast illegal settlement in the center of the West Bank, designed to "bury" the idea of a Palestinian state.

The Israeli Land Authority quietly published a tender in mid-December for the construction of 3,401 homes in the 'E1' project, which would effectively split the northern and southern West Bank for Palestinians and further isolate East Jerusalem.

The tender, previously unreported, outlines conditions for companies to bid on the work, with a deadline in mid-March.

"This reflects an accelerated effort to advance construction in E1," said Jonathan Mizrachi, co-director of Settlement Watch at Peace Now, who found the document online.

"The timeline suggests bulldozers could start work in less than a year," he added. The construction would complete the land grab, which the British government describes as "an obvious violation of international law."

The idea of building settlements in this area has been around for decades in Israel, supported by all political parties, and was first proposed in the 1990s by Labor Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995 by a right-wing nationalist.

For years, construction has been blocked by the US and Israel's European allies, for the same reason that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and key ministers support the plan.

Both critics and supporters agree that moving tens of thousands of settlers into the land triangle between Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Ramallah would be devastating for achieving a two-state solution.

"Construction in E1 aims to create irreversible facts on the ground, leading to a one-state reality, with all indicators suggesting it would be a form of apartheid," Mizrahi said.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, claimed last year that Donald Trump had abandoned the US's long-standing opposition to the E1 plan.

The State Department did not comment on Trump's stance, but in August, the Israeli government officially approved the project, and Smotrich said it would "bury" the idea of a sovereign Palestinian state.

"Those who try to recognize a Palestinian state will get a response from us on the ground," he said at the time. "Not through documents, decisions, or declarations, but through facts. Facts of houses, neighborhoods, roads, and Jewish families building their lives."

More than 20 countries, including Israeli allies France, Canada, Italy, and Australia, condemned the decision as a unacceptable violation of international law that could provoke further violence.

Israel has pressed ahead with construction planning. In September, the Housing Ministry signed an agreement to fund infrastructure construction for the expansion of E1 and the neighboring Ma'ale Adumim, with Netanyahu presiding.

"We said there will be no Palestinian state, and indeed there will be no Palestinian state! This is our place," Netanyahu said.

Sitting beside him was Smotrich, who is sanctioned by countries such as the UK, Canada, and Australia for "repeated incitement of Palestinian communities to violence" and the leader of the settler organization Amona, who is also sanctioned by the UK for supporting and sponsoring violence against Palestinians.

Netanyahu's enthusiasm was reflected in the rapid progress of the construction work. Typically, it takes six months to a year to prepare a tender for a settlement after planning approval, instead of four months for the massive E1 construction, said Hagit Ofran, a settlement expert at Peace Now.

If other stages of approval and contract procurement occur at a similar pace, construction workers could start bulldozers before the next national election, which is due by October 2023.

"I fear we will see construction in the coming months," Ofran said. "They are doing everything now to make as many irreversible changes as possible in the West Bank, as quickly as possible."

Winning bids could be selected within days of the tender closing. The next step is to negotiate contract details, which usually takes a few weeks. Once a contract is signed, the final stage of obtaining a construction permit is from the municipality, which can take months.

The infrastructure agreement is with the neighboring Ma'ale Adumim municipality, as E1 is officially classified as an extension of that settlement towards Jerusalem, rather than a new project.

This is just one of the many settlements expansions that the government is implementing through an aggressive construction agenda in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In December, Israel approved 19 new settlement propositions in the occupied West Bank, including two that were previously evacuated as part of the 2005 plan to remove Israeli settlements from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

There were 141 settlements in the West Bank in 2022. Once the approved settlements are built, there will be 210, according to Peace Now.

Israeli military forces are already deployed in areas where settlements were evacuated to establish bases before the arrival of new settlers.

There has also been an increase in violence in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and settlers in response to Israel's war in Gaza, which the UN Commission and human rights organizations in Israel and internationally have described as genocidal.

Since October 2023, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, with at least one-fifth of them children, and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes.

There is little political opposition in Israel to targeting Palestinians by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank from any of Israel's major political parties, and Israeli soldiers and settlers target Palestinians with widespread impunity.

The UN's International Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories violates international law. The advisory opinion ordered Israel to "terminate as soon as possible" its occupation and make full reparation for its "internationally wrongful conduct."