Mechinot, farms and settlements: The plan to strengthen the eastern border moves to the next stage
The government is promoting a decision of approximately 3 billion shekels to strengthen settlement along 500 km of the border. As early as September, about 40 Nahal groups are expected to be established, including hundreds of young people. Strock: "A historic strategic act like no other."
A round table meeting of civil society organizations operating along the eastern border took place on Wednesday at Kibbutz Kalia, initiated by the Ministry of Settlement and National Missions and the Settlement Division, to discuss future plans for settlement in border areas.
Participants included Minister of Settlement and National Missions Orit Strock, Ministry Director General Avi Meir, Settlement Division Chairman Yishai Merling, Megilot Regional Council Head Aryeh Cohen, and Jordan Valley Regional Council Head David Elhayani.
"We are all together doing here, on the eastern axis of the State of Israel, a historic strategic act like no other," Strock told the representatives. According to her, the area has been neglected for decades due to a lack of electoral incentive. "It is only profitable for our state, for our security, for the supreme value of Zionism which is settlement, but it is not electorally profitable, and therefore no one touched it," she noted.
The meeting was held against the backdrop of a government decision currently being promoted to strengthen the eastern border, which stretches over 500 kilometers opposite Jordan and has only about 40,000 residents.
"The entire spectrum of the political arc is here"
After October 7, a concept was formulated in Jerusalem that the relative quiet along the border had turned it into a weak link. In May 2025, the Security Cabinet approved a pilot of about 80 million shekels based on three pillars: youth neighborhoods, national mission centers (mechinot), and security farms. The broad decision currently being promoted stands at a scope of about three billion shekels.
The composition of the participants illustrated the project's broad support, including the Kibbutz Movement, Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, Hashomer Hadash, and various agricultural farms. "The entire spectrum of the Israeli political arc is here," said Strock.
Hashomer Hadash founder Yoel Zilberman described the connection as a relief: "The most important partner of the State of Israel is not the United States and not England, it is the Jewish people."
"We haven't established a settlement yet - when we do, we will know we succeeded"
The central demand raised by the organizations is that every 12th-grade graduate should participate in pre-military training. Zilberman explained: "We need to create a line of pre-recruits, guys who do mechinot and years of service, that will double the population on the borders." However, he emphasized that the real test is in permanent settlement.
Eastern Border Project Manager at the Ministry of Defense, Mordechai Benita, announced that in September, about 40 new Nahal groups would be established along the border, including 600 to 800 teenagers.
Amichai Shaut from the Farm Association called for a change in national planning policy: "We need to assimilate and change the planning rules of the State of Israel, to settle all the open spaces, and the best tool for this is agriculture."
"Settlement is security"
The discussion also addressed the lack of housing and employment solutions for young people who have finished their military service. Strock linked settlement to security: "The very presence, the very fact that there is life, the very fact that it is a bustling area and not abandoned, that is the security."
