Pictured Above: In Jerusalem, an encampment of protest tents of evicted residents from the Amona settlement outpost. The evacuees have demanded that the Israeli government establish a new community for them. Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday he plans to construct, for the first time in 25 years, a new community in Judea and Samaria.

“I had promised from the start that I would create a new settlement. It seems to me that I made that commitment in December and I will keep it today,” Netanyahu told reporters before a meeting with Slovenian President Borut Pahor.

He added, “There were will be more details about this in a few hours.” 

The prime minister was referring to a public commitment he made to 40 families from the settlement outpost of Amona, who were evacuated from their homes in February in a controversial move by the Israeli government over Palestinian land ownership claims. Netanyahu had pledged to create a new community for the Amona evacuees.

Israel reportedly recently rejected a request by the Trump administration to freeze construction in isolated settlement blocs, but the Jewish state subsequently denied that the U.S. made the request to begin with.

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