Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter discussed the significance of Judea and Samaria to Israel and the Jewish people against the backdrop of the United Kingdom's decision to sanction the Jewish communities in the area, in an interview with Mark Levin on Fox News.
Leiter suggested that Britain's decision to sanction Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria was driven primarily by domestic politics.
"There's a lot of domestic politics involved in the British government's approach," Leiter said. "I think that the British government is more concerned about what's happening in London, where parts of London look like Baghdad, than they are about what's happening in Judea and Samaria."
Turning to the importance of the region, Leiter said: "Judea and Samaria to the Jewish people, I mean, it's kind of like, well, you know, take the Vatican away from Catholicism or take Jesus away from Christianity. Jews were born in Judea."
He added that while the wisdom of individual Jewish communities in the area could be debated, he rejected claims that Jews living in Judea are "colonizers or occupiers of foreign territory."
"That's where Jews come from," he said.
Leiter noted that during the period of British rule, the areas were referred to as Judea and Samaria. He also addressed the name Palestine, saying, "It's always been Israel and always will be Israel."
The Ambassador said that Israel is a democracy in which Muslims, Christians, and Jews live together, and said that on a typical day, the vast majority of Palestinians and Jews in Judea and Samaria live alongside one another peacefully.
"Are there terrorists, Palestinian terrorists that are attacking Jews? Is there a fringe of a Jewish element that is responding with acts of violence? Yes, we're dealing with it. We have to deal with it. It's gratuitous violence. It's never acceptable," Leiter said.
He went on to condemn what he called the "selective morality" of the British Foreign Secretary as "absolutely immoral and intolerable."
Levin argued that reports of violence by Jews against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria are overblown and described what he sees as a broader propaganda campaign concerning the region. He then asked Leiter about Israel's response.
"There is a large-scale propaganda campaign going on," Leiter replied, comparing it to accusations made against Israel following the October 7 massacre.
"We were being accused of genocide and starvation on October 8th. We hadn't even entered Gaza yet as a response to the Hamas massacre," he said.
Leiter also referred to demonstrations on US university campuses in which protesters chanted, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
"That's what it amounts to. It's an eliminationist chant," he said.
He further alleged that Qatari and Chinese money had helped fuel the campaign, saying that it is "very difficult to contend with the billions of dollars that Qatar is spending to buy Washington."
Leiter said that Israel is now seeing another campaign involving Judea and Samaria. He claimed that Hamas support groups in the US are encouraging Palestinians who hold American passports to enter Judea and Samaria as part of what he described as "Antifa-like incitement."
"That's why we're finding more and more American passport holders involved in this incitement against Jews in Judea and Samaria, something we have to contend with," he said.
Leiter stressed that Judea and Samaria are significant to Israel not only because of Jewish history and identity, but also because of their geographic location.
"Judea and Samaria is not only historically and identity-wise part of the Jewish history and Jewish destiny, but Judea and Samaria is the center of the country," he said.
Without Judea and Samaria, Leiter said, Israel would be reduced to a country nine miles wide, as it was prior to 1967.
He compared the issue to Britain's control of the Falkland Islands, saying they are much farther from the British Isles and have "far less historical context to Great Britain than Judea and Samaria do to Jews."
"So if Israel were to compromise on Judea and Samaria, it would reduce itself to a country nine miles wide," Leiter concluded.
The interview aired on Fox News and was conducted by Mark Levin.