Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu explicitly rejected demands by the Obama administration that Israel cease all construction over the Green Line, saying that the US position on Judea and Samaria was “not acceptable”.
Speaking at a press conference in Rwanda on Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel would not accept the kinds of broad restrictions on construction in Judea and Samaria demanded by the White House and ridiculed suggestions such construction was an obstacle to peace.
“I know the US position, it is not new and not acceptable to us,” the Prime Minister said. “Building in Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim is, in all due respect not, distancing the peace.”
It is not housing units that fuel the ongoing violence, claimed Netanyahu, but Arab anti-Semitic incitement and refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
“What is preventing peace is, first of all, the continuous incitement against the existence of Israel on any borders, and it is time that the nations of the world recognize that simple truth.”
“The time has come to world to recognize it. The way to peace is through negotiations, we are willing to have direct negotiations, they are not willing to.
That is preventing peace, not a few houses in Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim”.
