Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) spoke on Wednesday afternoon with 50 law students from Harvard University’s honors program.

As part of her ongoing efforts to campaign for Israel’s rights in its Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, Hotovely took the opportunity to speak to the students about the criticism against Israel over it’s presence in the region.

“The time has come to return to the legal truth according to international law – the ‘occupation’ is a lie from the Palestinian libel factory, together with the claims of apartheid, this is slander disconnected from the legal reality,” she said.

Hotovely continued, explaining, “the state of Israel did not occupy Judea and Samaria in 1967 from the state of Palestine, because there never was such a state. Jordan was illegally in possession of the territory, and we liberated Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria in a defensive war.”

“After they were unable to defeat us in war throughout the years, the stage of delegitimization began; the BDS movement negates the state of Israel’s right to exist, and the way to fight it is by revealing the lies and letting the truth be heard throughout the world.”

Regarding the legal status of Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, the 2012 Levy Report determined that Israel’s presence is fully legal according to international law. However, despite being commissioned by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, two consecutive governments led by him have yet to adopt the report.