(Courtesy)

“Defense is important and security is important, but the most important thing is the moral claim of Israel.”

The Jewish nation’s claim to the Land of Israel comes from the Jewish Bible, not Google, Israeli Minister Tzachi Hanegbi declared at an event held in support of placing Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria within the final borders of the State of Israel.

“Defense is important and security is important, but the most important thing is the moral claim of Israel. We are committed to going forward with living in our ancient land, land that was given to us not by Google and Wikipedia, but by the Bible,” he said in Washington on Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The event at which Hanegbi spoke was hosted by the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, titled “Celebrate 50 Years of Rejuvenation in Judea and Samaria.”

Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Galant stated that “for us, Judea and Samaria is Israel.”

“There is no way that Israel can exist” without the Jordan Valley and the mountaintops of Samaria, he said, according to the Post. “Of course, it is difficult to have a strong Jerusalem without [the surrounding Israeli communities of] Givat Ze’ev, Ma’aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion and all these places.”

“It [the Six Day War] was a just war. It is a just defense. But the most important one, it was based on a just claim. A just claim of the Jewish people on [the Biblical areas of] Beit El, Shechem, Jerusalem and Hebron,” Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said.

“Let me tell you something, if those places are not Jewish, who can tell me that [the modern cities of] Herzliya, Rehovot, Rishon Letzion and Tel Aviv are Jewish,” Hotovely said. “I always say that the ‘occupation’ is a myth, because we never occupied other people’s land. This is Jewish land [Judea and Samaria]. This should forever be a Jewish land under Israeli law.”

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