‘We’ve returned home to Evyatar’: Hundreds camp out in evacuated Samaria settlement, demanding to rebuild

“The return to Evyatar is the proper Zionist response to the … barbaric murder of four beloved sons of this nation. We will hit the Arab enemy where it hurts most.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Hundreds of religious Zionist youth and families, joined by several coalition MKs, encamped Monday night at a settlement in Samaria that previous governments had promised to recognize, saying that the proper answer to the terrorist murders at Eli that day is to reestablish the community.

Evyatar, near Nablus (Shechem), is an unauthorized community that was evacuated two years ago with the promise that its land would be surveyed and that whichever part was found to be on state land would be made into a legal village. The survey was completed, but the government has yet to fulfill its side of the bargain and has not allowed the villagers to return.

“We’ve returned home to Evyatar,” declared MK Tzvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), who at the time was one of the fledgling community’s founders. “Terrorists should know that any attack will only deepen the Jewish hold on the territory.”

“Two years after being evacuated, the time has come for us to return forever,” he added.

His party had made the legalization of the nascent village “according to the Evyatar outline” – a condition for joining the current coalition. In February, the government authorized nine young settlements, but Evyatar was not included.

According to a Channel 14 report, the renewed attempt to resettle Evyatar was done with the knowledge of the political echelon, and the activists received a message that “we won’t evacuate you.”

Israelis have repeatedly returned to the site in an effort to get the government to fulfill its promise, especially after terror attacks. In February, after brothers Hillel and Yigal Yaniv, were murdered in a shooting attack in nearby Huwara, hundreds trekked to Evyatar but were evacuated by force by the army. Tens of thousands went there during the Passover holiday in April in a more festive atmosphere.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said in a statement, “The return to Evyatar is the proper Zionist response to the … barbaric murder of four beloved sons of this nation. We will hit the Arab enemy where it hurts most.

“Anyone who tries to kick us off our land will get a thousand Evyatars…. The noble families of Evyatar have waited long enough. Neither [U.S. President Joe] Biden, the EU, nor the terrorist Palestinian Authority will distance us from our land. We’re here to stay.”