Some 200 Likud party members protested on Saturday evening against the decision of Likud leader, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to temporarily freeze settlement activities in the occupied territories. They also protested the US President, Barack Obama, for ‘pressuring’ Israel into freeze settlement construction. The protest was led fundamental settler leaders, such as Ron Nachman who heads the Yesha Council of Settlements.
Israeli Ynet News reported that Nachman slammed Netanyahu for “following the path of the late Israel Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin”, and for “following the paths of Ehud Barak, Meretz and the left in Israel.
He added that he would file a petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice against the government’s decision to freeze settlement activities.
Nachman further stated that Barak Obama “does not dare to do in his country what he is asking Israel to do to the Jewish settlers”, and said that the ‘United States has a constitution, while Israel has prostitution’, the Ynet reported.
Avi Naim, head of the illegal Beit Ariyeh local authority, criticized the Obama administration for what he described as its pressure on Netanyahu to freeze settlement activities.
Naim further described Obama’s administration as being ‘anti-Jewish’ and ‘anti-Semitic’.
The Ynet also reported that Likud member of Knesset, Danny Danon, slammed the Likud-led government of Netanyahu for what he called ‘telling 300.000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank that they are the problem’.
Settlers in the occupied territories were always encouraged by consecutive Israeli governments, including by so-called moderate governments, and always received funding to expand on the expense of Palestinian lands.
Settlers living in the occupied territories were armed by consecutive governments in Israel, and thousands of them are extremists who never hesitated in using their guns against the Palestinians and will not hesitate in using them against the Israeli army in case of forced evacuation.
All Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, including in and around East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Negev are illegal and violate the International law and the Fourth Geneva Conventions.
