"The ruins were waiting for us": Return to the settlement evacuated during the disengagement

21 years after the last families were evacuated from the community settlement of Ganim as part of the disengagement plan, this coming Thursday families will return to live on the site. The reconstruction core will move to the settlement, and at the same time a branch of the "Bnei David" pre-military academy from Eli will open there, marking another stage in the return of Jewish settlement to northern Samaria.

The move to Ganim will take place on August 13, in cooperation with the Samaria Regional Council, the Amana movement, and the Settlement Division. The first families are expected to enter the place where the settlement stood until its evacuation in 2005 and start community life anew.

Ganim was one of the four settlements that were uprooted from northern Samaria in the disengagement, alongside Homesh, Sa-Nur, and Kadim. For more than two decades, settlement activists led a struggle for the repeal of the Disengagement Law, and now the move is gradually shifting from decisions and declarations to actual settlement.

The return to Ganim comes just days after the first 22 families moved into the new settlement of Emek Dotan. Emek Dotan is the first new settlement established in northern Samaria that is not one of the four settlements evacuated in the disengagement. Together, the two moves illustrate the change currently taking place on the settlement map in the region.

The re-establishment of Ganim is part of the "Reconnection Plan" led by the Samaria Regional Council, which includes the establishment of 19 new settlements in the northern Samaria area. The move was launched about a year after the cabinet decision promoted by ministers Israel Katz and Bezalel Smotrich, and the council also views it as part of the "Million in Samaria Plan".

Alongside the families' housing, a branch of the "Bnei David" pre-military academy from Eli will be established on the site. The council presents the establishment of the branch as another component in establishing the renewed settlement and strengthening the Jewish presence in northern Samaria.

Head of the Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan said:

"This is a moment of historical correction. 21 years ago they expelled families from here, destroyed houses, and tried to uproot the settlement from northern Samaria. On Thursday we are returning to Ganim and re-establishing it."

According to him, "Not only have we returned to the four settlements that were uprooted, we are doubling and tripling the settlement in northern Samaria. Instead of uprooting we are bringing construction, instead of withdrawal we are bringing settlement. Ganim is rising again and the entire northern Samaria is returning to life. The people of Israel are returning home."

Chairman of the Ganim core, Alon Kutzki, said that there is great excitement among the families ahead of the move:

"There is a lot of excitement and a desire to help, both from the parents and from the children. Large families are leaving their comfort zone and mobilizing for this important mission."

Kutzki added: "It is exciting and joyful to return to a region that was abandoned, to see the ruins from 21 years ago, to know that these places were waiting for us and to return to them. It is a great privilege and it is incredibly inspiring."