Establishing new settlements in the West Bank will "completely destroy the idea of a Palestinian state within our heartland," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Thursday.
Smotrich's comments came at a ceremony celebrating the establishment of a new settlement, called Maoz Tzur, in the Binyamin region of the West Bank.
"Congratulations to the 12 core families - the pioneers of Maoz Tzur," Smotrich wrote on X/Twitter on Friday morning, sharing footage of his visit and speech to the crowd.
Smotrich, at the sidelines of the event, also commented that "destroying the idea of a Palestinian state" comes alongside "fortifying the security of the Israeli state."
Speaking to a Religious Zionism-aligned news outlet, he said that "the people of Maoz Tzur understand that the security of Modi'in, Rosh Ha'ayin, Kfar Saba, and Raanana, is in places like this."
Smotrich also shared similar sentiments during his address to the wider crowd.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana: West Bank is ours, we are here to stay
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana also gave a statement to the news outlet, commenting that the backdrop is a "beautiful, biblical view."
"We aren't in simple times. We have been in a war for over two years - the longest in Israel's history," Ohana said.
"Especially during this period, to come and establish a settlement, in the Binyamin region, where most of the world is not with us on this issue [of settlements in the West Bank], we ministers, MKs, Knesset staff, myself, came to tell the world that this is our land," he stated.
"We have returned here after 2,000 years in order to stay," Ohana concluded.
Other Israeli officials, including Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, Innovation, Science, and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel, MK Ariel Kallner, Mateh Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz, and other MKs and settlement movement officials, also attended the ceremony.