HAMILTON, Canada

A UN committee on Thursday strongly rejected Israel's so-called E1 settlement plan, demanding an immediate halt to all illegal settlement activity.

The Bureau of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People rejected and condemned the plan in occupied East Jerusalem that approved more than 3,400 housing units in the critical area.

It "strikes at the heart of Palestinian territorial continuity, severely restricting and violating the freedom of movement and further fragmenting and isolating Palestinian communities," it said, and demanded that "this illegal plan" be stopped.

The committee noted that UN Security Council Resolution 2334 declared Israeli settlements a "flagrant violation under international law demanding Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities," stressing that Israel "has absolutely no sovereignty rights" in the occupied territories, as affirmed by the International Court of Justice in its July 2024 advisory opinion.

"By severing East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, this illegal settlement plan endangers the viability and existence of the Palestinian State and further entrenches Israel's illegal occupation, paving the way for further forced displacement and dispossession," it added.

The committee called the Israeli plan a "blatant land grab" that undermines decades of international consensus and comes at a moment when "the Palestinian presence in the City (is) endangered."

It urged decisive action at next month's High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine, stressing the goal remains "the full realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian People."