Geert Wilders, the head of the Party for Freedom, the Netherlands’ largest political faction and a member of the ruling coalition, visited Samaria on Monday morning at the invitation of the Samaria Regional Council.

Council head Yossi Dagan said that Wilders, as part of his tour of the area, received a briefing at an observation point “in the seam line area on the narrow ‘waist’ of the State of Israel, which illustrates the security importance of Samaria for the residents of the center of the country.”

Dagan told the visiting political leader: “There are only 70 kilometers [44 miles] from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, with the hills of Samaria dominating the area, accounting for 55 kilometers, [or 34 miles, of those 70 kilometers].”