The heads of many Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria on Monday said they will continue authorizing new building projects in their communities, despite a 10-month settlement freeze declared by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.
At their third emergency gathering since Netanyahu's announcement, the settler leaders labeled the prime minister's decision "illegitimate, immoral, inhuman and anti-Zionist."
They threatened to forcibly deny entry to their communities to government inspectors.
Representatives from Netanyahu's office refused to respond to queries by The Jerusalem Post regarding the settler position.
Netanyahu announced the partial settlement freeze under tremendous US pressure. While he and other government officials say it will demonstrate to the world that the true obstacle to peace is Palestinian intransigence, many fear that once a concession has been made, the international community will not allow Israel to take it back.
The Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are by far the fastest growing sector of Israeli society, and the settlement freeze is stifling them and threatening to put a lot of laborers, including thousands of Palestinians, out of a job.