Minister Uri Ariel in Leshem
Minister Uri Ariel in LeshemYoni Kempinski

Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) took part on Sunday in dedication ceremonies for the new Jewish neighborhood of Leshem in the Shomron (Samaria) community of Aley Zahav and new neighborhoods Kedumim.

During the ceremonies Ariel stressed that Israel will continue to build Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria, despite the peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.

"Today we are placing another brick in Israel. I say in the clearest voice that I'm here to build you an apartment. And we do this everywhere in the country,” he stated. “We’re building 300 units in Leshem just as we are building thousands of apartments in Rosh Haayin. We build in Kedumim just as we build in Kiryat Gat and in Modi’in. We build in Jerusalem just as we build in the Galilee.”

Ariel added, "Israel needs housing everywhere in the country and we will provide a response to everyone everywhere. This is the right thing to do today - both from a Zionist and an economic point of view. We build and we lower the prices here and in Tel Aviv. On my way here I was told about another successful marketing of hundreds of housing units in Harish and in Nahariya. It happens today, and it happens every day.”

The Housing Minister added that the two-state solution to end the Arab-Israeli conflict is unrealistic and will never happen.

"Anyone who thinks that we can be forced to build only within the Auschwitz borders is wrong,” he said, referring to the pre-1967 borders, which are indefensible and were termed “Auschwitz borders” by former Foreign Minister Abba Eban.

“I suggest to such a person that he look for the big criminals against humanity elsewhere. They are not here, they are elsewhere in the Middle East,” said Ariel.