JERUSALEM, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday that no Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank will be ever evicted, even not in the framework of a future peace agreement.
He made the remark during a meeting with settlers of Netiv Ha'avot, a former outpost demolished in June 2018 under a court order because it had been illegally built on private Palestinian land.
The meeting was held in a new neighborhood that Israel's right-wing government sponsored for Netiv Ha'avot's former residents in the settlement of Migdal Oz, south of Jerusalem.
"No one will be uprooted from his home," Netanyahu told the settlers.
"There is a thought that the way to achieve peace with the Arabs is by uprooting us from our land," he said, referring to the Palestinians' demand to halt the expansion of the settlements in order to renew the long-stalled peace talks.
"As far as I am concerned, there will be no uprooting of settlements, and there will be no cessation of (construction in the) settlements, but the exact opposite," Netanyahu noted.
"The land of Israel is ours and it will remain ours," he added.
The meeting was held amidst political campaigns held ahead of Israel's general elections to be held in April.
The settlements, a major issue among the right-wing constituency, are illegal under the international law because they are built on lands seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war where the Palestinian wish to build their future state.
