US envoy to Israel says West Bank settlers ‘aren’t going anywhere’

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman reportedly told American Jewish leaders at a conference in Jerusalem last night that Israeli settlers in the West Bank “aren’t going anywhere.”

Friedman said that evicting and relocating the hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in the territories sought by Palestinians for their future state would spark a civil war, Channel 10 reports.

He said that IDF officers who would have to carry out settlement evacuations are increasingly “people who believe this land was given to them by God,” and would likely refuse to carry such orders.

“I believe that a widespread eviction will lead to a civil war. But that’s my opinion,” he said according to the report.

It said a number of conference participants were “startled” by Friedman’s statements.

In the past, Friedman has been a staunch supporter of the settlement movement. Before taking up his post, he served as president of American Friends of Bet El Institutions, an organization that supports a large West Bank settlement near Ramallah, and he has a long history of excoriating groups who criticize Israel’s settlement policy.

Since Friedman’s appointment as ambassador to Israel, the State Department has twice publicly rejected remarks he had made pertaining to Israel’s presence in the West Bank as not reflecting the stance of the Trump administration.