Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to go on with settlement construction, following reports of US pressure ahead of a fresh round of Palestinian prisoner releases due later this month.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to go on with settlement construction, following reports of US pressure to stop the expansion.
"We will not stop, even for a moment, building our country and becoming stronger, and developing... the settlement enterprise," he told members of his rightwing Likud faction in remarks broadcast on army radio on Thursday.
Netanyahu's comments, made late on Wednesday, came as US Secr
etary of State John Kerry fights for the survival of peace talks between the Zionist entity and the Palestinian Authority, which were launched in late July but have been severely strained by Israel's persistent settlement drive.
Late on Wednesday, the Haaretz news website reported that Kerry and other senior US officials had urged Netanyahu and his cabinet "to exercise maximum restraint in announcing new construction," in tandem with the release on December 29 of 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners.
Two previous rounds of prisoner releases in August and October have been accompanied by Israeli announcements of fresh construction, sparking deep anger in Ramallah.
But in his remarks on Wednesday, Netanyahu appeared to rebuff any pressure from Washington, blaming the absence of any peace agreement on the PA refusal to recognize the occupation entity as “Jewish state.”
"I know that people keep telling us that there is no peace because of the settlements, because of our presence in Judaea and Samaria and it's not true," the premier said, using the biblical term for the West Bank.
"There is no peace because of the ongoing opposition to the existence of a national Jewish homeland within any borders, and we have the right to a state just like any other people."
