21 Years After Expulsion, Jewish Families Return to Northern Samaria

“We are erasing the disgrace of the expulsion and strengthening Judea and Samaria, the security belt of the State of Israel,” Smotrich said.

By United with Israel Staff

Twenty-one years after the community of Ganim was evacuated and demolished under Israel’s 2005 Disengagement Plan, Jewish families have returned to establish a permanent presence at the site in northern Samaria.

Thirty pioneer families moved to Ganim on Thursday, marking a major step toward rebuilding one of four northern Samaria communities uprooted during the disengagement. The return is being led by the Samaria Regional Council together with the Amana settlement movement, the Settlement Division and the Ministry of Settlements.

The move follows years of efforts to reverse the disengagement from northern Samaria and restore Jewish communities in an area from which Israelis were barred after the 2005 evacuation.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hailed the return Thursday, describing it as a historic correction 21 years after the uprooting of the community.

“Twenty-one years after the sin of the expulsion, the community of Ganim has been reestablished and families have moved to live there,” Smotrich said.

Smotrich pointed to a Cabinet decision he spearheaded to formalize dozens of communities in Judea and Samaria as part of the broader settlement push.

“Following the Cabinet decision that I led to regulate dozens of communities, this morning we returned to Ganim, one of the four communities expelled from northern Samaria,” he said.

“We are erasing the disgrace of the expulsion and strengthening Judea and Samaria, the security belt of the State of Israel,” Smotrich continued. “When we are in Ganim and Samaria, there is security in Afula, Hadera, Kfar Saba and Netanya.”

Alongside the arrival of the first families, a new branch of the Bnei David pre-military academy and yeshiva in Eli will be established at Ganim. Organizers say the institution will form a central part of the renewed community and help strengthen a permanent Jewish presence in the area.

Preparations for the return included the placement of dozens of large Israeli flags at the entrance to Ganim. The Samaria Regional Council described the display as a symbol of sovereignty, returning home and correcting a historic national wrong.

Ganim, located near Jenin in northern Samaria, was evacuated alongside Kadim, Homesh and Sa-Nur in August 2005 as part of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Disengagement Plan. While the plan is best known for Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the destruction of 21 Jewish communities there, the four northern Samaria communities were also evacuated.

The Knesset subsequently repealed key provisions of the disengagement law that had prohibited Israelis from returning to the evacuated areas of northern Samaria, paving the way for renewed Jewish activity and efforts to rebuild communities there.

Thursday’s return comes just days after 22 families moved onto the site of a new community, Emek Dotan, near the historic Dothan Valley and Joseph’s Pit.

According to the Samaria Regional Council, Emek Dotan is the first new community established in northern Samaria since the four communities were evacuated in 2005. It is also the fifth new community established by the council in less than a year, reflecting a broader push to expand and restore Jewish settlement in the region.

Speaking at the inauguration of Emek Dotan earlier this week, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan described the developments as a reversal of the disengagement.

“Today we are correcting a historic injustice,” Dagan said. “Twenty-one years ago they tried to uproot us from the four communities in northern Samaria, thinking it was possible to disconnect the people of Israel from their land.”

“Today we are proving the opposite,” he continued. “Not only have we returned to northern Samaria, we are rebuilding it bigger, stronger and more prosperous.”

The return to Ganim carries particular symbolic significance because it is not merely the establishment of another community, but the restoration of a Jewish town that was physically dismantled during one of the most divisive episodes in recent Israeli history.

For the 30 families arriving Thursday, the move transforms that symbolic return into a permanent one, restoring Jewish residential life to Ganim for the first time in 21 years.