Netanyahu tells Israeli settlers ‘nobody will be uprooted’
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday told Israeli settlers he will keep building across the occupied West Bank and that no one would be “uprooted from his home”.
It was unclear if Netanyahu was suggesting no settlements would be dismantled in any peace deal with the Palestinians, which would mark a significant change and raise further doubts over future possibilities of a two-state solution.
Netanyahu was speaking in Parliament at a special session marking 50 years since the SixDay War, when Israel’s occupation of the West Bank began, to an audience of lawmakers and invited settler leaders.
“Everyone has the right to live in his home and nobody will be uprooted from his home,” Netanyahu said.
His comments came as Israeli authorities also advanced plans for some 1,500 settlement homes in the West Bank, including units for the first new official settlement in some 25 years, the Peace Now NGO said.
A Defence Ministry committee advanced the plans and might do so for around 1,000 more yesterday, said the NGO that tracked settlement building in the Palestinian territory.
United States President Donald Trump has called on Netanyahu to hold back on settlement building as he seeks ways to relaunch peace efforts, but the Israeli leader also faces political pressure from the powerful settler movement. AFP