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Ya'alon deliberately provokes Palestinians with 'memorial settlement'

The Israeli defense minister’s proposal of a new settlement in the memory of the murdered teens is another step in Israel’s plan to undermine the new Palestinian national unity government.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) listens as Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon gives a statement regarding the military operation to locate three missing Israeli teenagers, at a military base near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Beit Haggai, near Hebron June 19, 2014. Israeli forces traded gunfire with Palestinians on Thursday, the military said, in the fiercest street battles in the occupied West Bank since a search began for the three Israeli teenagers missing for a week. REUTERS/Jim Hollander
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) listens as Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon gives a statement at a military base near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Beit Haggai, near Hebron, June 19, 2014. — REUTERS/Jim Hollander

There is a sense of collective sorrow and sympathy for the families of the three kidnapped and subsequently killed Israeli boys. This sentiment was encapsulated by US President Barack Obama when he said, “As a father, I cannot imagine the indescribable pain that the parents of these teenage boys are experiencing,” and urged “all parties to refrain from steps that could further destabilize the situation.”

For Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to propose a new settlement in the memory of the murdered teens underlines his determination to enforce a deliberately provocative policy, one which ignores the proliferation of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel is a conqueror, and since June 1967 has never acted as a responsible occupier.

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