ISRAEL’S approval of the E1 settlement scheme in the occupied West Bank has provoked condemnation from more than 20 countries, including several members of the European Union. On Thursday, the foreign ministers of 21 nations and the EU released a joint statement demanding that Israel immediately cancel the plan. The E1 project involves 3,400 illegal settlement units on occupied Palestinian land near the existing Maale Adumim settlement. It also includes 342 units in a new colony at Asael in the southern West Bank. According to Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, the settlement subcommittee also advanced plans on Wednesday to construct another 342 units in Asael between east and west Mount al-Khalil.