UAE Joins Eight-Nation Statement Rejecting Israel's E1 Settlement Plan, Demands Sanctions

The UAE has co-signed a joint statement with seven other governments condemning Israel's advancement of the E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank, calling for international sanctions against those responsible for it.

The statement, published Friday, August 21, by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was jointly issued by the foreign ministers of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia — a bloc spanning the Gulf, the Levant, and South and Southeast Asia's largest Muslim-majority states.

The statement was triggered by Israel's decision on August 18 to open a tender for more than 1,200 housing units in the E1 settlement zone, land east of occupied East Jerusalem that Palestinians want as the capital of a future state. Building there would cut the West Bank in two, physically severing East Jerusalem from the rest of the territory. Rights groups and regional analysts have long warned E1 construction would make a contiguous, viable Palestinian state impossible — burying the two-state solution outright. The tender's deadline falls before Israel's general election in October.

The eight ministers issued a "categorical condemnation" of Israeli settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory and a "complete rejection" of the E1 plan specifically, calling it a violation of international law and UN resolutions. They reaffirmed that a two-state solution "remains the only viable path" to a just and lasting peace, and demanded Israel immediately halt E1, cancel related measures, and end all settlement activity altering the territory's geographic and demographic makeup.

The statement's sharpest line calls for "appropriate international measures and sanctions" against individuals and entities responsible for, or facilitating, the settlement expansion — language stronger than the routine condemnations these governments have issued on past settlement announcements.

The move drew condemnation well beyond the region: the UK summoned Israel's chargé d'affaires over the tender, and six European governments plus Canada jointly called it "unacceptable," warning companies against bidding on related contracts.

The UAE has held formal diplomatic relations with Israel since the 2020 Abraham Accords and has kept trade and security ties running through the Gaza war, unlike Saudi Arabia, which has never normalized relations. Abu Dhabi has said before that settlement annexation of the West Bank would cross a line it will not accept — Friday's statement, and its sanctions language, is that line being enforced.