Ma'ale Adumim has asked Israel's High Court to block an Attorney-General recommendation to delay a tender for 1,234 homes in the contested E1 area until after the Oct. 27 election. Legal advisers said a one-month postponement would avoid the project becoming part of the election campaign; the municipality argues the tender was approved months earlier and that delaying it now would be improper political interference. Separate petitions challenge the underlying E1 plans, and the High Court has given the state until Thursday to respond.
Ma'ale Adumim Asks High Court To Block Delay Of Contested E1 Housing Tender Ahead Of Election
View of the area of the planned E1 project between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, August 14, 2025 (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
The Ma'ale Adumim municipality has petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice seeking to block a legal opinion from the Attorney-General's Office that urged state authorities to postpone a tender for 1,234 homes in the politically sensitive E1 area until after the Oct. 27 national election.
Legal Deadline and Dispute
The Israel Land Authority and the Construction and Housing Ministry administer the tender and set the timetable. Bids are currently due on Oct. 19 — eight days before the election — but senior legal advisers recommended delaying the deadline by one month, arguing that moving forward so close to a vote could become entangled in the campaign.
Municipality’s Argument
Ma'ale Adumim rejects that reasoning. The municipality says the tender received political approval in October 2025, the notice was published in December 2025, the Housing Ministry's Jerusalem district approved the plan on June 23, and tender documents were completed in August. It argues these steps show the process began well before the campaign and that pausing it now would be improper political interference.
Israeli attorney general Gali Baharav Miara attends a House committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem on, June 9, 2026 (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
"If the claim is that continuing the tender is political, I say exactly the opposite: Stopping it now is an intervention with political implications," said Mayor Guy Yifrach.
Attorney-General's Office View
The Attorney-General's Office — in a written summary circulated by senior justice ministry attorney Anat Asif Gil after discussions led by two deputy attorneys-general — acknowledged the tender did not originate during the campaign. However, advisers said E1's exceptional political and diplomatic sensitivity and the proximity of the submission and developer-selection steps to the election justify a short postponement to avoid using state processes in a way that could influence voters.
Related Legal Challenges
The new municipal petition does not ask the High Court to rule on the underlying legality of construction in E1. That question is being litigated separately in administrative petitions brought by Palestinian residents and human-rights groups Ir Amim, Bimkom and Peace Now. Earlier this month, Jerusalem District Court Judge Nimrod Flax declined to freeze the planning process, noting construction remains distant and that prospective bidders were warned any rights would be subject to the court's final ruling.
Next Steps
The municipality has asked the High Court to require the state to explain why the tender should not proceed on its timetable and to issue an interim injunction preventing the Israel Land Authority and Housing Ministry from postponing the deadline based on the Attorney-General's advice while the petition is pending. The High Court set a deadline for state responses by Thursday. Unless the agencies change the timetable or the court intervenes, the bid deadline remains Oct. 19.
Context: The tender covers 1,234 homes across seven residential compounds and is the first stage of a broader plan for roughly 3,400 units in E1, an area between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim that has long attracted international attention and criticism.
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