Some 30 settler families have reestablished the settlement of Ganim in the West Bank on Thursday, 21 years after Israel withdrew its citizens from the area under the 2005 disengagement plan overseen by former prime minister Ariel Sharon.
The comes several months after Israel’s security cabinet decided to give legal status to 19 West Bank settlements in December 2025, a move originally proposed by Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz.
“We are erasing the disgrace of expulsion and strengthening Judea and Samaria, the security belt of the State of Israel,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich lauded the move in an afternoon statement. “When we are in Ganim and Samaria, there is security in Afula, Hadera, Kfar Saba and Netanya.”
“Remember: the Eisenkot-Lieberman-Golan government wants to destroy all of this. We must not let this happen,” he said.
Katz and MK Yuli Edelstein attended the inauguration ceremony, breaking ground alongside Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan and several other members of Knesset.
“After leading the historic law to cancel the disengagement in northern Samaria in the last term, we took the ground today together with the head of the council, Yossi Dagan, for the inauguration of the new settlement of Ganim,” Edelstein wrote in a Thursday post to X/Twitter.
“Twenty-one years ago, I warned of the enormous danger involved in expelling Jews from their homes. Today, everyone understands that this terrible folly has brought upon us an unforgettable disaster.”
“The pioneers of settlement in Judea and Samaria are the guarantee of Israel's security,” said Edelstein. “As the chairman of the Land of Israel lobby in the Knesset for many years, I pledge to do everything to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
“Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim are just the beginning.”
Moment of 'historical correction'
Dagan called the settlement’s reestablishment as a “moment of historical correction,” according to Ynet.
“Twenty-one years ago, families were expelled from here, demolished homes and tried to uproot the settlement from northern Samaria,” he said. “Today we are returning to the gardens and reestablishing it."
"Not only have we returned to the four communities that were uprooted, we are doubling and tripling the settlement in northern Samaria."
Bringing life back to Ganim
"This day is much more than moving to the settlement, it is a moment of correction, revival and returning home,” Moriah Masalti, a woman who has moved to Ganim as part of the settlement’s rebuilding efforts, told Ynet. “Twenty-one years after families were displaced from here, the people of Israel are back and rebuilding in the place where they were forced to leave.”
“We are excited to be the families who are honored to bring back life, homes, community and children here,” she said.
“The people of Israel are returning to their land, and we are honored to be part of this historic moment. We are bringing life back to Ganim.”