The Israeli leader pledged on Monday to annex all Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria a day before Israel heads to the polls.
By United with Israel Staff and AP
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to extend Israeli sovereignty to “all” Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, including an enclave deep in the heart of the region.
“I intend to extend sovereignty to all the settlements and the [settlement[ blocs,” said Netanyahu, including “sites that have security importance or are important to Israel’s heritage.”
Netanyahu made the comments in an interview with Israeli Army Radio, part of an eleventh-hour media blitz before national elections in Israel on Tuesday.
Asked if that included the hundreds of Israelis who live in the city of Hebron, Netanyahu responded “of course.” Hebron is one the Jewish faith’s four holy cities and is home to one of Judaism’s most important pilgrimammage sites, the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs.
Netanyahu has made a series of ambitious pledges during the campaign, including a promise to annex the Jordan Valley, an area that is both home to a number of Jewish communities and serves as a strategic strip of land militarily.
In a copycat move just a day after Israel’s Cabinet in the Jordan Valley, the Palestinian Authority held a meeting in the same area on Monday.
Israel won control of Judea and Samaria, the biblical heartland of the Jewish people, from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel defeated the four Arab nations that attacked it in that war.