Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged Israeli Jews to visit Judea and Samaria – what the world calls the “West Bank” and insists is Arab land – during the upcoming Passover holiday.

In a Passover greeting to Jewish community leaders in Judea and Samaria, Netanyahu said that he “admires your ability to maintain a daily routine despite heightened security in times of tension,” and vowed the State of Israel would continue to protect the right of Jews to live in Israel’s biblical heartland and everywhere throughout the Land of Israel.

“We established our sovereignty and returned control of our destiny to ourselves,” said the prime minister, in a veiled swipe at the international community, which just this week again reiterated that it does not recognize what it calls the “Israeli occupation.”

In closing the letter, Netanyahu called upon all Israelis to “go out during Passover and to see nature, visit the sites of the Bible and heritage sites scattered across the country.”