West Bank settlements ‘will not be uprooted’

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to never uproot any settlement in the occupied West Bank, prompting a backlash from Palestinians and raising more questions about the slow start for US peace efforts led by White House adviser Jared Kushner.

“We have returned here for good,” Mr Netanyahu said on Monday in the West Bank settlement of Barkan. “There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the land of Israel. Settlements will not be uprooted.”

The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, for an independent state alongside Israel.

Hours later, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, who was in the West Bank city of Ramallah to visit Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah, said settlement activity was illegal under international law, calling it an obstacle that needed to be removed. Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, said: “This is an Israeli message to the US administration, which sought through an important tour in the area to do something to rescue the peace process.”

Mr Kushner and his envoy, Jason Greenblatt, have held talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, as well as with leaders across the Arab world in an attempt to take a regional approach to solving the decades-old conflict.

A senior White House official played down Mr Netanyahu’s comments.

“Our focus is on continuing our conversations with both parties and regional leaders to work towards facilitating a deal that factors in all substantive issue,” the official said.

Yesterday, Israeli politicians visited Al Aqsa Mosque compound for the first time in two years.

The visit, by Knesset members Yehuda Glick and Shuli Mualem-Rafaeli, which passed peacefully, was meant to test the waters as Mr Netanyahu’s government mulls whether to allow such visits to resume. They were banned in 2015 for fear of sparking tensions.

Members of the mainly Arab Joint List parliamentary alliance said they were boycotting the programme, the Israeli Ynetnews website said.

Joint List member Ahmad Tibi denounced Mr Glick and Ms Mualem-Rafaeli as “right-wing extremists” who “broke into Al Aqsa Mosque with the help of the Israeli government and its police”.