Judea-Samaria leaders pull out of Netanyahu meeting

Several Judea and Samaria regional council leaders informed Prime Minister Netanyahu they would not be attending a meeting with him. 

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli news site Ynet reports Wednesday that several regional council heads in Judea and Samaria told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they would not attend a planned meeting with him.

According to the report, the settlement leaders said Netanyahu had not kept his promises and refused their requests to deal with the latest wave of terror attacks. Their plans were “rejected, ignored or smeared,” the leaders said.

The leaders who boycotted the meeting, scheduled for Wednesday morning, included Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, Binyamin Regional Council chief Yisrael Gantz, and Kiryat Arba Mayor Eliyahu Libman.

Arutz-7 reports that the three wrote in a letter to Netanyahu:

“In the last few months we in the settlements have suffered major terror attacks, including the murders of Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel, Ziv Hajbi, the newborn baby Amiad Israel Ish-Ran from Elon Moreh, Sergeant Yosef Cohen, and Staff Sergeant Mor Yosef – along with many people who were injured or wounded.”

The three regional council heads wrote further:

“During our meetings with the prime minister and representatives of his office we made a number of requests including the cancellation of 400 million shekels ($106 million) in planned security spending cuts in Judea and Samaria, the return of IDF forces which had been removed from the area, the return of security checkpoints, and a Zionist response to the terror attacks by [expanding] settlement [in Judea and Samaria]. To our great disappointment, however, the vast majority of our requests were dismissed or ignored.”

Other council heads did attend the meeting.

Benjamin NetanyahuJudea and SamariaYossi Dagan