Germany urges Israel to cancel construction of new Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria

Germany urged the Israeli government on Friday to cancel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s plan to build new Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank. The German Foreign Ministry specifically pointed to Smotrich’s recent announcement of plans to construct some 3,000 housing units in the sensitive E1 area.

"The German government calls on the Israeli government to stop settlement construction and will only recognize changes to the borders of June 4, 1967, that have been agreed upon by the parties to the conflict," a Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Berlin stated.

"The settlement construction violates international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions," the spokesperson continued, arguing that the move undermines the international efforts to implement a two-state solution to the conflict.

"It complicates a negotiated two-state solution and an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, as demanded by the International Court of Justice," he added.

Smotrich, a vocal opponent of the two-state solution, acknowledged that his plan seeks to prevent the establishment of a “Palestinian state.”

“The approval of the construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are implementing on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan, which we began to realize with the formation of the current government,” Smotrich said last week.

Critics argue that the expansion of the E1 area – located just east of Israel’s capital, Jerusalem – would undermine the territorial continuity of a potential Palestinian state. Supporters of the E1 expansion contend that it is necessary to accommodate Jerusalem's population growth.

Israel disputes the predominant international position that Judea and Samaria are “occupied” because a Palestinian state has never existed and the territory was occupied by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan before 1967.

Israel and some legal scholars maintain that Judea and Samaria are legally disputed rather than “occupied” territories. Supporters of Jewish communities in the area argue that Jews should have the same right to live there as the roughly two million Arab residents who hold full Israeli citizenship.

The idea of building homes in the contested E1 area is not new and was first proposed by the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. However, due to intense international pressure, successive Israeli governments – including conservative ones – have so far refrained from moving forward with construction there.

Criticism from Germany is noteworthy given that Berlin has long been one of Israel’s strongest allies within the European Union. Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis in 2023, Germany strongly backed Israel’s right to self-defense. However, the German government recently announced it would suspend arms exports to Israel for use in the ongoing war against the terror group, Hamas. Germany, as Israel’s second-largest arms supplier, after the United States, has mainly delivered platforms to the Israeli Navy, including submarines and military vessels.

As in many other Western countries, Germany has seen a surge in anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment since Oct. 7. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) recently reported a sharp rise in antisemitism, with about 1,000 incidents recorded in 2025. While not stated publicly, the German government may be facing growing pressure from domestic anti-Israel groups to adjust its Middle East policy.