In Al Eizariya, Mohammed Faroun sleeps on the floor of his shuttered café, waiting for Israeli bulldozers. His business, like thousands of others, stands in the way of a new highway and the E1 settlement expansion east of Jerusalem,

Tánaiste @SimonHarrisTD has joined 21 counterparts from Europe and globally in condemning plans for settlement construction in the E1 area of the West Bank. These plans are a violation of international law & a fundamental threat to the two-state solution – they must be reversed. pic.twitter.com/FTmIbDZbEv

In a reversal of past US policy, the State Department backed the E1 project connecting Maale Adumim to Jerusalem, calling it essential to Israel’s stability and regional peace.