Netanyahu at Ofra golden jubilee: ‘We upheld the promise of generations’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Ofra in southern Samaria on Sunday to mark the community’s 50th anniversary.

During the event, Netanyahu and Binyamin Regional Council head and Yesha Council chairman Israel Gantz unveiled a plaque for a cedar tree the premier planted 25 years ago.

“It is very, very moving to be here. I came here 25 years ago, for the half-jubilee, to plant roots in a place where we already have roots thousands of years old. I said that I would return, if you invited me, for the jubilee celebrations of the community of Ofra,” said Netanyahu.

“I also told you in that conversation that we would do everything to ensure our continued hold on the Land of Israel, to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, to prevent the attempts that were made—and unfortunately still exist—to uproot us from here. With God’s help, what I promised—we fulfilled,” the premier continued.

“It was not easy, because there were many forces, many pressures—internal pressures, external pressures, a series of American presidents who wanted to uproot us and establish a Palestinian state here. Together, we stood firm. We upheld the promise of generations, and look what has happened since,” he said.

“I am moved every time I come here, but I had not been beside this tree for 25 years,” he continued. “This tree symbolizes the deepening of our roots in the homeland and the raising of our branches higher and higher, exactly as we promised. I bless you for being, in essence, the spearhead of our continued existence in our land.”