Following reports that an investigative team from the American Consulate in Jerusalem, visited Efrat and interviewed the mayor, Oded Raviv, and other residents, settlement leader Nadav Haetzni has warned Yesha leaders not to cooperate with the group.

“To hostile forces all information, even if it looks simple and general, can be exploited against us. These interviews are a form of intelligence gathering and part of a surveillance database that Mitchell is building here. It is chutzpah that a foreign government is investigating us on our sovereign soil.”