Netanyahu: I won’t let settlements be uprooted in any diplomatic plan
The prime minister said that "We never lost our right to live in Judea and Samaria. The only thing we lost – temporarily – was the ability to exercise that right.”
By LAHAV HARKOVPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Kohelet Policy Forum, Jerusalem, January 8, 2020(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Settlements will not be evacuated in any peace plan while Benjamin Netanyahu is prime minister, he vowed on Wednesday, amid talk that the Trump administration may present its peace plan within weeks.“I will not let any settlements be uprooted in any diplomatic plan. This idea of ethnic cleansing... it won’t happen,” Netanyahu said at the Kohelet Policy Forum’s conference on the US decision that settlements are not illegal.His remarks came as diplomatic sources say the Trump administration is strongly considering releasing its plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians in the coming weeks, before the March 2 Knesset election.“There is a window of opportunity. It opened, but it could close,” Netanyahu said, warning of “weak leadership” that will “hit rewind,” in an apparent reference to his election rival Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.Netanyahu expounded on the Jewish right to live in Judea and Samaria, pointing to its anchoring in legal documents from the San Remo Conference and the League of Nations.“There was no West Bank separate from the rest of the land,” Netanyahu said. “It was seen as the heart of the land. We never lost our right to live in Judea and Samaria. The only thing we lost temporarily was the ability to exercise the right.”When Israel returned to the West Bank, he said, “We didn’t return to a foreign land. That is a distortion of history. Jews lived in Jerusalem and Hebron for thousands of years consecutively.”The development of settlements benefited Jews and Arabs, he said. “They don’t have an economy without it. I say it sadly, but that’s the truth.”Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the declaration that settlements are not illegal, saying they stood up for “justice and the truth.”“The Pompeo declaration about the status of the towns [in Judea and Samaria] establishes the truth that we are not strangers in our land,” he said. “In a clearly defensive war, we returned... to the land where our forefathers put down roots thousands of years ago.”
Netanyahu said the declaration is the appropriate response to the International Criminal Court’s plan to examine whether it can probe Israel for war crimes.“That will not deter us at all,” he said. “Unlike some in Europe who think the Pompeo declaration distances peace, I think it will promote peace, because peace must be based on truth, not lies. Settlements are not the root of the conflict. We are standing with justice and the truth. It is a great struggle.”
