US Ambassador Friedman: Israel ’only occupying 2% of the West Bank’
By JPOST.COM STAFF | September 28, 2017 14:35
▻http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/US-Ambassador-Friedman-Israel-only-occupying-2-percent-of-the-West-Bank-50621
“I think the settlements are part of Israel,” he said. “I think that was always the expectation when resolution 242 was adopted in 1967... The idea was that Israel would be entitled to secure borders. The existing borders, the 1967 borders, were viewed by everybody as not secure, so Israel would retain a meaningful portion of the West Bank, and it would return that which it didn’t need for peace and security.”
“So,” he continued, “There was always supposed to be some notion of expansion into the West Bank, but not necessarily expansion into the entire West Bank. And I think that’s exactly what, you know, Israel has done. I mean, they’re only occupying 2% of the West Bank. There is important nationalistic, historical [and] religious significance to those settlements, and I think the settlers view themselves as Israelis and Israel views the settlers as Israelis.”