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Israeli Minister: Building the Antidote to Terrorism

CBN

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JERUSALEM, Israel -- Israel's announcement to convert close to 1,000 acres in Gush Etzion to state land drew harsh criticism from the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, Great Britain, and the Palestinian Authority.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel "to refrain from settlement activity," AFP reported.

"The secretary general calls on Israel to heed the calls of the international community to refrain from settlement activity and abide by its commitments under international law and the Quartet Road Map," AFP quoted Ban's spokesman.

The State Department said the government should retract the decision, calling it "counterproductive," while British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond issued a statement saying, "The U.K. deplores the Israeli government's expropriation of 988 acres of land around the settlement of Etzion."

The land in question is near the area where three Israeli teens were kidnapped and murdered on their way home from school in June.

After IDF troops discovered the boys' bodies in a shallow grave near Hebron, the government ordered the Civil Administration to expedite the process to determine the land's ownership. The administration concluded the 988 acres could be legally converted to state land.

One Israeli official confirmed that reclassifying the parcel was "part of a legal process that has been going on for years," the Jerusalem Post eported.

Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett said building is Israel's answer to terrorism.

During a visit Monday to the yeshiva (Torah seminary) where two of the murdered boys had been enrolled, Bennett Israel will continue to develop the nation.

"The world has never loved it when we build, not before the creation of the state and not afterwards," Bennett told the students. "We will continue to build our land."

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