Netanyahu during settlement visit: ‘The Land of Israel is ours’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday during a visit to illegal settlement outpost of Netiv Ha’avot in the so-called Gush Etzion settlement bloc that there will be no more removal of settlements, reported Haaretz.

“There won’t be any more uprooting or halting settlements – just the opposite: The Land of Israel is ours, and will remain ours,” Netanyahu declared.

There are more than 200 settlements across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, all of which are illegal under international law. Israel distinguishes between official settlements and unauthorised outposts (though many of the latter are retroactively “legalised” under Israeli law).

According to the report, “Netanyahu met with residents of the West Bank outpost after ordering to allocate tens of millions of shekels to build a permanent neighbourhood for them, promising that ‘What fell will rise, it’s ours, we’re building here and you’re living here’.”

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Netanyahu added: “We’ve returned to the homeland, to Netiv Ha’avot (i.e. the route of our ancestors in Hebrew). Abraham, Isaac and Jacob passed by here. We’ve been here for 3,000 years.”

Addressing the evacuation of 15 illegally-constructed homes last June, following a petition by Peace Now and local Palestinian landowners to the Supreme Court, Netanyahu described the order as a “mishap”, that a new neighbourhood would be built, and “nobody will uproot us”.

“The home where this child was raised has been demolished but we won’t have it anymore and that’s why we are building this new neighbourhood. There children will have homes here, we did not come back here after thousands of years only to be uprooted, nobody will uproot us,” he said.