The Attorney General’s Office today (Monday) canceled the decision to postpone by one month the deadline for submitting bids in the tender for the construction of 1,234 housing units in the E1 area, meaning the tender will not be delayed until after the elections.
The development comes after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara decided to postpone the deadline for submitting bids by one month due to its proximity to the election period.
Under the original decision, the tender process was to continue only after the Knesset elections, based on the position that advancing the project at this time could carry political implications.
The project includes seven residential complexes containing 1,234 housing units, which are part of the 3,401 housing units approved for advancement in the E1 area. The area, stretching between Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem, is considered a strategic zone intended to create built-up continuity between the city and the capital.
Ma’ale Adumim Mayor Guy Yifrach expressed satisfaction with the Attorney General’s Office’s decision to reverse its intention to delay the tender. “I am pleased that we succeeded in this struggle and that the E1 tender will proceed as planned," Yifrach said. “After more than 30 years of waiting, the time has come to build. I call on developers and contractors to submit bids, join us in a Zionist endeavor, and become partners in building and expanding Ma’ale Adumim and connecting it to Jerusalem, our capital. E1 is moving forward."
However, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claims that the move is a maneuver by the Attorney General. “The Attorney General’s maneuver, joining Eisenkot in his opposition to strategic construction in the E1 area that will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian terror state, is transparent. She has only one objective - to create a situation in which the tender is not completed during our term, the left comes to power, and cancels the construction.
“As far as the Attorney General is concerned, as long as the tender box has not been opened, the bids examined and the winner announced, the tender can still be stopped. I am not prepared to accept that. The tender must open and close, with the winner announced and construction beginning, on the date originally set for it," Smotrich said.