Israeli ministers on Sunday officially reopened Sa-Nur, a settlement in the occupied West Bank that was abandoned 20 years ago, marking the event with defiant statements against Palestinian statehood and calls for the resettlement of Gaza.
Several members of the government and representatives attended the ceremony near a row of white prefab houses lined up on top of a hill.
Excluding East Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank in settlements that are illegal under international law, among about three million Palestinians.
– On this exciting day, we celebrate the historical correction of the criminal expulsion from northern Samaria – said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, using the Israeli biblical name for part of the West Bank.
The inhabitants of Sa-Nur were expelled in 2005 as part of the so-called Israel’s policy of separation, during which Israel also withdrew its army and settlers from the Gaza Strip.
The policy promoted by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was presented as a security measure aimed at reducing Israeli civilian and military presence in densely populated Palestinian areas.
Israel’s current government, considered one of the most right-wing in the country’s history, has approved the rebuilding of all four settlements in the northern West Bank that were evacuated in 2005.
The authorities approved 126 housing units in Sa-Nur alone.
– We cancel the shame of separation, bury the idea of a Palestinian state and return to the settlement of Sa-Nur – said Smotrich.
Smotrich, a far-right minister in the ruling coalition and a settler himself, also called for the resettlement of the Gaza Strip as a “security zone” for the State of Israel.
Israeli media reported that 16 families had moved into the rebuilt settlement in recent days, adding that among the new residents was Yossi Dagan, president of the northern West Bank Settlement Council.
Dagan was among those who were evacuated from Sa-Nur in 2005.
– For me, this is both a national and a personal closing of the circle – said Dagan after cutting the ribbon at the ceremony.
“No more moving out, no more retreating. We’re back to stay.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and since then settlement expansion has been a policy pursued by successive Israeli governments.
However, that process has accelerated significantly under the current coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to data from activists and authorities, more than 100 settlements have been approved since this government came to power in 2022.
(Vijesti.ba)
