Shimon Peres
Shimon PeresFlash 90

Daniella Weiss, former mayor of Kedumim and a leader of the Nachala settlement movement, on Wednesday recalled Shimon Peres’s contribution to the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria.

“The left talks about Peres’s sin, the beginning of the massive settlement in areas liberated during the Six Day War. Even though the breakthrough was in Gush Etzion and in Hevron with Rabbi Hanan Porat and Rabbi Levinger, the signing of the Sebastia agreement with Shimon Peres was actually the beginning of the massive Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria,” Weiss told Arutz Sheva.

“It is not for nothing that the left refers to the Sebastia agreement as Shimon Peres’s ancient sin. I remember we gave him a bouquet of flowers. He took this historic step even though he did not agree with our being in Judea and Samaria,” she added.

At the same time, Weiss continued, one cannot ignore the Oslo Accords and in this regard, Peres made a huge mistake.

“He thought of a new Middle East, but the exact opposite happened and Peres made a bad mistake,” she said. “Peres’s contribution to the breakthrough in Samaria compared to the damages of Oslo and the illusion of a new Middle East is an historic contribution, and I am happy that there is settlement in the midst of the terrible chaos of Oslo.

“Oslo was a disaster with all the terror that followed it, but I do not want to judge on a day like today. Thank God that the settlement enterprise began 40 years ago, and we will only grow from here,” concluded Weiss.