Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited a Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Sunday and said that he had fulfilled a promise to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state that he made to the settlers 25 years ago.
According to The Times of Israel, the Israeli leader recalled his visit to the Ofra settlement in the year 2000 and saying that “we would do everything to ensure our continued hold on the Land of Israel, to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, to thwart the attempts that existed then — and unfortunately still exist — to try to uproot us from here. Thank God, what I promised — we kept.”
Netanyahu said he prevented a Palestinian state despite significant external pressure. “Pressures from home, pressures from abroad, a series of American presidents who wanted to uproot us and to establish a Palestinian state here. We stood firm together. We upheld the promise of the generations,” he said.
The Ofra settlement was started in 1975 and, like all other Israeli settlements in the West Bank, is illegal under international law. Netanyahu was visiting the settlement on Sunday for an event marking its 50th anniversary.
The visit came after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced a major settlement expansion that he said would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.” The plan is seen as Smotrich’s reaction to the UK, France, Canada, and Australia declaring their intent to recognize a Palestinian state.
The Trump administration has also expressed significant opposition to its allies’ plans to recognize a Palestinian state, and President Trump has even suggested a trade deal with Canada could be scrapped over Ottawa’s plans.
