Israel establishes 8 new towns in Judea and Samaria

Eight new Israeli communities formally established in Judea and Samaria, including two towns that were evacuated during the 2005 Disengagement Plan.

By World Israel News Staff

The Israeli government formally established eight new towns in Judea and Samaria over the weekend, granting retroactive recognition to some while clearing the way for the construction of several new communities.

On Sunday, the Interior Ministry granted settlement symbols to the eight towns, a step that constitutes the final seal turning them into fully regulated, officially recognized communities in the State of Israel.

This final step in granting state recognition clears the way for the newly established towns to receive basic services from government ministries, enables the national water carrier company, Mekorot, to link the towns to the national water system, and extends national postal services via Israel Post to the towns.

In addition, the communities will now receive education budgets from the state, and funding for security.

The new communities include Kanfei Shahar and Mitzukei Eretz in the Binyamin district of Samaria. A third town in the district, Alon, was granted recognition as an independent township after being listed for more than 30 years as a neighborhood within Kfar Adumim.

In addition, the town of Brosh HaBika was recognized in the Jordan Valley district, along with Mitzpeh Ziv in the Mount Hebron district of Judea.

In the Samaria Regional Council, Havat Yair, also known as Lehi, received retroactive recognition, while two towns, Ganim and Kadim, were reestablished 21 years after they were demolished as part of the 2005 Gaza Disengagement Plan.

The recognition of the eight towns brings the total number of new communities established in Judea and Samaria to 33.

Finance Minister and Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich hailed the recognition of the newly reestablished towns of Ganim and Kadim as an important step in overturning the Gaza Disengagement.

“Within about four months, thank God, we succeeded, thank God, in bringing 33 settlement symbols as part of establishing new communities and regularizing the young settlement movement,” Smotrich said.

Smotrich noted that the other two Samaria towns evacuated in the 2005 Disengagement – Homesh and Sa-Nur – have already been reestablished.

“This is a tremendous achievement and the fruit of the labor of many partners loyal to the path. Settlement in Judea and Samaria continues to grow and flourish with full force, and the return to Ganim and Kadim, together with Homesh and Sa-Nur, constitutes an important and moving stage in correcting the injustice of the disengagement.”

“We are advancing de facto sovereignty on the ground in order to prevent any possibility of establishing an Arab state in Judea and Samaria. I thank the Interior Ministry, the regional commander, the Civil Administration, and the Settlement Administration for leading these moves.”