Israel Reopens West Bank Settlement Closed 20 Years Ago

Israel has officially reopened the Ganim settlement in the occupied West Bank, an area settlers left 20 years ago. “Here, this is the Land of Israel. Here, we are staying forever,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said at the inauguration ceremony on Thursday.

Dozens of prefabricated homes have been placed in Ganim, with construction activity still ongoing. Around one hundred Israelis attended the reopening ceremony. Yossi Dagan, head of the Israeli authority responsible for settlements in the northern West Bank, also attended and declared, “The era of evacuation is over – from here, we only build.”

Ganim was one of four Israeli settlements in the West Bank evacuated under the 2005 disengagement plan led by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The settlers were removed because the settlement was situated between Palestinian cities and villages. Under the current government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel is accelerating the expansion of illegal settlements. Besides Ganim, two other previously evacuated settlements, Sa-Nur and Homesh, have also been reopened.

Last month, the Israeli security cabinet approved the construction of a new illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the decision on social media, describing the approval as a “historic revolution.” He stated that the new settlement would be established near Sa-Nur in the northern West Bank and would be the 104th settlement approved since Netanyahu’s government took office in 2022. “104 settlements and more than 160 farms will form a defensive wall for several Israeli cities,” Smotrich wrote.

The United Nations has repeatedly affirmed that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are illegal and violate international law. According to the UN, the existence and construction of these illegal settlements undermine the prospects for a two-state solution. Since occupying the West Bank and Jerusalem following the 1967 war, Israel has actively built settlements in both territories. It is currently estimated that more than 700,000 Israeli settlers live in illegal settlements in the West Bank.