Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin NetanyahuHillel Meir/TPS

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday at a meeting of the Likud faction that he is building Judea and Samaria as much as possible, but his remarks contradict statements he made in 2015.

"[I am] a prime minister who stood against two very difficult US presidents and we built and built and built," Netanyahu told members of the Likud faction following the demand in the national camp to approve construction after the attack in Ofra.

Netanyahu's words are cast in doubt in light of what he testified in 2015, when he delivered a speech at the Zionist World Congress in Jerusalem. "In my first term in office, we built an average of 3,000 units annually in Judea and Samaria. In Barak’s single year he built 5,000, in [the term of] Sharon it was down to 1,900, in [the term of] Olmert it was down to 1,700.

"Given the circumstances, in my successive terms, it’s down to 1,500. There are reasons for that we can discuss some other time, but facts are facts. These numbers are exact. So, far from seeing settlement surge, there has actually been a decline,” Netanyahu said then.

נתניהו בישיבת סיעת הליכוד: מתפללים לשלום הפצועיםערוץ הכנסת