(JNi.media) Council heads in Judea and Samaria who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday told Israeli media that he said to them “it is impossible to further develop the settlements, we need instead to maintain what there is.”
The Likud Knesset faction denied the report, stating “the prime minister did not say he would not build in Judea and Samaria.”
According to the council heads, the meeting touched on a group of residential buildings in the town of Beit El, in Binyamin Region, that have been slated for demolition by a Supreme Court order that found them to be standing on private Palestinian land. At that juncture, Netanyahu and Shai Alon, head of the Beit El council, began a debate that culminated in Netanyahu’s above statement.
Alon demanded that the prime minister live up to his promise to replace the demolished buildings with 300 new housing units. Netanyahu flatly refused.
According to the report, Netanyahu told Alon: “You’re worried about your community’s interests, I’m worried about the interests of the entire country.”
Mount Hebron council head Yochai Damari told Yediot: “Today I attended a meeting where the Prime Minister announced his intention to halt the settlement enterprise. This decision to freeze the process of designing and building in Samaria will severely damage many communities that are already faced with complicated challenges. Not watering a plant is the same as uprooting it.”
Damari attacked Netanyahu, saying that “the Prime Minister stands like a rock before world pressures on the Iran issue, and does not announce compromise or retreats from our principles. Terrorism is terrorism. The statement he made fuels the continued war against us in the international arena, and challenges our right to Judea and Samaria.”
“Construction is the only effective way to fight terrorism,” Damari concluded. “Not the death penalty and not detention. I urge the government ministers to change this dangerous decision and fulfill the mandate of the voters who expressed their will clearly only recently.”
Damari was referring to hundreds of thousands of voters from Judea and Samaria who gave the Likud an estimated four or five Knesset seats, lifting it from the low 20s to a 30-seat victory last March.
The Likud responded that “the prime minister did not say he won’t build in Judea and Samaria. The prime minister said that would promote creating additional housing units in Beit El by evacuating the local Border Police compound. Contrary to the allegations, the prime minister did not rule out any construction in Judea and Samaria, and said he is promoting the settlement enterprise with wisdom and responsibility, in the face of a complex international reality.”
A week ago, in response to a string of bloody attacks by Palestinians on Jewish civilians in Judea and Samaria, Bayit Yehudi Chairman Party Chairman and Minister of Education Naftali Bennett met with Prime Minister Netanyahu to demand “political approval for construction in Judea and Samaria, and the strengthening of the settlement enterprise,” noting that “the Bayit Yehudi faction will not ignore the murder of Jews.”
Which means that the Netanyahu statement Monday may have the potential to start a coalition earthquake.