UPDATE: Some five hours after the Or Haim outpost was established, large Police and Border Guard forces, accompanied by inspectors of the Civil Administration, arrived at the site and began evacuating the settlers. This was our previous image to accompany the report. You can spot the sign near the right corner of the image above.
The Or Haim outpost was established overnight Friday near Migdalim in Samaria, in memory of the spiritual leader of the Religious Zionist community, the late Rabbi Haim Drukman, who passed away on Rosh Chodesh Tevet, the seventh light of Hanukah, December 25, 2022.
The outpost was established without permission from the government or the IDF by Rabbi Drukman’s grandson, Naveh Schindler, and for now, has five families who will spend Shabbat here:
נכדו של הרב דרוקמן ז”ל, נוה שינדלר, הקים הלילה מאחז חדש בשומרון – באזור היישוב מגדלים. נכון לעכשיו, יש במקום 5 משפחות pic.twitter.com/66FC9WwTky
— Carmel Dangor כרמל דנגור (@carmeldangor) January 20, 2023
Schindler said in a statement: “Immediately after grandfather’s passing, our hearts were filled with the decision to establish a new settlement in Samaria, for his iluy neshama (the rising of his soul). The best commemoration of my grandfather is the establishment of a new settlement. He fought all his life for every piece of land in Israel, and was always on the side of those fighting for the land.”
According to the families of Or Haim, the point where their outpost was established is in a very strategic location that overlooks the Trans-Samaria road that connects the Jordan Valley with Samaria and the center of the country and is intended to prevent contiguous Arab settlement in the area.
This was the original ending to our report. Now we know the answer. Stay tuned for further developments:
Now it remains to be seen if Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government, with enthusiastic supporters of the settlement enterprise such as Ministers Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben Gvir, and Yoav Galant, will leave the outpost intact or continue the policy of the previous governments and evacuate the families.
Update: Ben-Gvir called on Galant to stop the evacuation, according to reporter Amit Segal, but it appears Ben-Gvir was too late.
