Israel approves vast settlement plan

Israel has approved a long-delayed settlement project that would build 3,400 housing units for Jews in Judea and Samaria, in a move that both its backers and its many critics say would undercut Palestinian ambitions to control the region.

The E1 project would expand Jewish settlements on a stretch of land east of Jerusalem, effectively bisecting Judea and Samaria and limiting Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem from growing,

Proposed decades ago, but never finalized, the plan was abruptly moved forward this month by Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and it received fina...