Israel approves controversial West Bank settlement project

Israel has announced the final approval for a controversial plan allowing new settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the plan last week, Deutsche Welle reported.

It calls for development in an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, known as E1. The Israeli government would build nearly 3,500 new apartments to enlarge the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, which lies next to E1. 

The UN has warned that the plan would divide the West Bank and make any two-state solution untenable.

The plan Smotrich presented would divide the occupied West Bank, Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at the Ir Amim organization, told DW when it was introduced last week.

"It breaks up the West Bank into a northern part and the southern part," he said, adding that it would make a Palestinian state "not possible."

Plans for new Israeli settlements in the West Bank have been widely condemned and are considered illegal under international law, which Israel has consistently disputed.