Cabinet ministers, members of Knesset, local politicians, and hundreds of settler activists celebrated the reestablishment and repopulation of the settlement of Sa-Nur in the northern West Bank on Sunday, nearly 21 years after it was evacuated under the Disengagement Plan.
Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan, who was one of the residents evacuated from Sa-Nur in 2005, was one of the 16 families who took up residence anew in the settlement on Sunday.
Speaking at the ceremony, Defense Minister Israel Katz repeated previous promises that the government is working on legalizing 140 illegally established farming outposts around the West Bank.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the reestablishment of Sa-Nur as a “national holiday” and a “historic correction” to the “sinful expulsion from northern Samaria,” in reference to the four settlements in the northern West Bank, including Sa-Nur, that were evacuated under the Disengagement, which also saw Israel dismantle all its settlements in Gaza and pull out of the Strip.
The left-wing Peace Now organization called the reestablishment of the four settlements “stupid and wicked,” citing what it said was the increased security burden the move would add to the IDF and the negative impact it would have on the ability of local Palestinians to access their land.
In December, Israel expropriated 500 dunams of private land in order to build a six-kilometer bypass road to reach Sa-Nur without passing through Palestinian villages.
Under the Disengagement Plan, former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s government evacuated all the Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, along with Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim in the northern West Bank.
Both aspects of the Disengagement Plan were severely traumatic for the settler movement and the religious Zionist community more broadly.
Smotrich, during Sunday’s event, also called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order the IDF to prepare for a “full occupation” of Gaza and to reestablish settlements there as well.
The current government paved the way for reestablishing the settlements in the northern West Bank in March 2023, when it repealed legislation that had enacted the evacuation of the four settlements and had, until that time, prohibited Israelis from living there.
In May 2025, the security cabinet approved the establishment of 22 new West Bank settlements, including Homesh and Sa-Nur, and in December, it approved the establishment of another 19 settlements, including Ganim and Kadim.
A kindergarten was opened in Homesh in September for families already living in the settlement, and 10 families formally repopulated Homesh last month.
In recent days, prefabricated homes were constructed in Sa Nur for the 16 families taking up residence in the new settlement, and the families transferred their belongings from their old homes to Sa-Nur on Sunday.
Plans have been submitted for the construction of 126 housing units in Sa-Nur, although they are yet to be approved, necessitating the erection of the prefabricated homes to enable the repopulation of the settlement ahead of the often lengthy planning approval and construction process.
“Today we are making history in Samaria and effectively abolishing the terrible crime of expulsion from northern Samaria,” Dagan said during the ceremony, which was attended by several hundred people.
“We have proven that it is possible to turn back the clock, to right an injustice even if it seems that all is lost.”
“On this moving day, we are honored to make a historic correction to the sinful expulsion from northern Samaria,” said Smotrich. “We are abolishing the disgrace of expulsion, killing the idea of the Palestinian state, and returning to the settlement of Sa-Nur. This is a day of celebration for the settlement movement and a national holiday for the State of Israel.”
