A few days after meeting a White House delegation to discuss avenues for restarting peace talks with the Palestinians Israeli premier Benjamin declared Monday that he would never evacuate Israeli settlements in the West Bank which he called Samaria.
“We are here to stay forever. There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the land of Israel. This is the inheritance of our ancestors. This is our land” Netanyahu said addressing a large crowd of Jewish settlers at an event held in the illegal settlement of Barkan to celebrate 50 years of Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.
“There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the land of Israel. It has been proven that it does not help peace” he said. “We have uprooted settlements. What did we get? We received missiles. It will not happen anymore” he confirmed further.
Netanyahu was referring to Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the dismantling of settlements there after its troops faced persistent fierce resistance from the Palestinians. The next year the popular Hamas Movement won the Palestinian legislative elections but its rival Fatah Israel and other foreign powers did not accept that.
“So we will not fold. We are guarding Samaria against those who want to uproot us. We will deepen our roots build strengthen and settle” Netanyahu told the attendees.
Jewish settlements in the West Bank which are considered illegal by the international community have been at the crux of peace talks for long years.
Successive US presidents have considered the settlements an obstacle to peace and have called for at the least a halt to their expansion but current president Donald Trump seems to be less critical in his press remarks of Israel’s settlement construction than his predecessors.
Some political analysts accuse Trump and his right-wing administration of supporting settlement construction in camera.
