In Their Own Words: Senior Israeli Officials on the Palestinian Question

By Institute for Middle East Understanding

Global Research, May 30, 2015

IMEU 27 May 2015

Prime Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud Party Leader)

[Question: If you are reelected prime minister, there will be no Palestinian state?] “Indeed.” - March 2015

“[A]s long as Likud is in power, we won’t divide Jerusalem, we won’t make concessions, we won’t withdraw from land.” -March 2015

“I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan [the occupied West Bank].” - July 2014

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Hotovely (Likud)

“We are opposed to a Palestinian state… [Netanyahu's 2009 declaration of support for a Palestinian state at Bar-Ilan University was] a tactical speech for the rest of the world.” - December 2012

Minister of Education & Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home Party Leader)

“I will do everything in my power, forever, to fight against a Palestinian state being founded in the Land of Israel.” -January 2013

Minister of Interior Silvan Shalom (Likud)

“We are all against a Palestinian state, there is no question about it.” - May 2012

Deputy Minister of Defense (Rabbi) Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home)

“We oppose a Palestinian state completely… As our party advocates, we need to take full control of Area C [60% of the occupied West Bank] and impose Israeli law there.” - February 2013

“[Palestinians] are beasts, they are not human.” - August 2013.

Minister of Internal Security, Minister of Tourism & Cabinet Liaison to the Knesset Yariv Levin (Likud)

“We will act to strengthen our hold on all parts of Eretz Israel, and will safeguard the settlement enterprise out of faith and the knowledge that exercising our rights to this land is our duty but also the best guarantee for Israel’s security.” -June 2013

“In this way, we will try, slowly but surely, to expand the circle of settlements, and to afterwards extend the roads that lead to them, and so forth. At the end of this process, the facts on the ground will be that whatever remains [of the occupied West Bank] will be merely marginal appendages… We fully agree and are completely united behind the prime minister’s position, which is to strengthen our foothold in the Land of Israel, to build in [occupied East] Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank].” - January 2013

“Even when the prime minister [Netanyahu] spoke about the issue of two states, he didn’t speak about a [Palestinian] state in the full sense. He spoke about a long range of conditions that he himself says there is no chance that they will be fulfilled in the near future due to the actions of the other side.” - January 2013

Minister of Immigration and Absorption & Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Zeev Elkin (Likud)

“I certainly think a Palestinian state is no solution. And if I think a Palestinian state is no solution, that means I do want a Jewish presence here. Which raises the question: What do you do with the Palestinian population? And I don’t think the answer to that question can be found right now. But a Palestinian state is no solution, not for us and I don’t think for them either.” - July 2013

“We will try to apply sovereignty over the maximum [of the occupied West Bank] that we can at any given moment… It will take time to change people’s awareness but in the end this will penetrate. And then, what seems today like a fairy tale will eventually become political reality, and the reality on the ground.” - January 2013

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Uri Ariel (Jewish Home)

“…not even one settlement in Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank] will be uprooted… Israeli citizens [settlers] will only be under full Israeli sovereignty. And west of the Jordan River there will only be one state and that is the state of Israel.” - March 2014

“With God’s help we will continue building all the land of Israel and Jerusalem the capital… It must be made clear that this is only the beginning. This melody can’t be stopped… We can and will market thousands of [settlement] apartments in [occupied East] Jerusalem and there are more than 10,000 apartments ready for marketing in Judea and Samaria.” - August 2013

Minister of Transportation and Road Safety & Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy Yisrael Katz (Likud)

“I am opposed to a Palestinian state. It is unacceptable, mainly because of our rights to this land.” - July 2013

Minister of Science, Technology, and Space Danny Danon (Likud)

“A deal giving up most of Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank] – the current Likud leadership will not accept that… We [who oppose such steps] are the majority in the party.” - September 2013

“Look at the government: there was never a government discussion, resolution or vote about the two-state solution… If you will bring it to a vote in the government… you will see the majority of Likud ministers, along with the Jewish Home [party], will be against it… Today we’re not fighting it, but if there will be a move to promote a two-state solution, you will see forces blocking it within the [Likud] party and the government.” - June 2013

“The long-term vision is to apply Jewish sovereignty over the Jewish communities [settlements] of Judea and Samaria, and I am proud of it.” - November 2012

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

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