Israeli minister: Settlements will continue despite talks

Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel said on Sunday that Jewish settlers will not be removed from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and that the settlements will continue despite the ongoing peace talks with the Palestinians. Ariel, a member of Naftali Bennett's pro-settlement Jewish Home Party, made the remarks in a speech at a rally by settler council heads in front of the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in West Jerusalem to protest a possible evacuation of settlers as part of a final peace deal. The council heads said the evacuation from settlements was out of the question, arguing that the settler community and the Israeli society as a whole would never accept such a peace deal.