West Bank settlements ‘top priority’ for Netanyahu government

Israel’s Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP/PA)

Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming hard-line government has put West Bank settlement expansion at the top of its list of priorities a day before it is set to be sworn into office.

Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party released the new government’s policy guidelines on Wednesday, the first of which was is that it will “advance and develop settlement in all parts of the land of Israel — in the Galilee, Negev, Golan Heights, and Judea and Samaria” — the Biblical names for the West Bank.