Settlements are illegal under international law as they violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of the occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory. Settlements and their related infrastructure have significant humanitarian consequences for Palestinian communities. Movement of Palestinians within the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is restricted by a series of administrative and physical obstacles. These restrictions, which exist primarily to protect settlers and facilitate their movement, have consistently undermined the access of Palestinians to basic services, including hospitals and clinics, schools and universities, separated families and undermined access to livelihoods.The seizure of land in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, by the Israeli authorities for settlement use has resulted in the shrinking of space available for Palestinians to develop their communities. Settlement building in and around East Jerusalem is also one of the key factors increasingly separating East Jerusalem – the focus of Palestinian political, commercial, religious and cultural life – from the rest of the oPt.

On 29 November 2012, the United Nations General Assembly upgraded the status of Palestine to a non-member observer state. On 30 November, the Government of Israel announced plans to authorize 3,000 settlement housing units in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to expedite plans for large-scale new construction in the strategic ‘E1’ area between Ma’ale Adumim settlement and East Jerusalem. As outlined by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 2 December 2012, if constructed, the E1 settlement “… risks completely cutting off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank”, “would represent an almost fatal blow to remaining chances of securing a two-state solution.”