Late Wednesday night, after the shocking murders in Eli, Jewish families retook the Evyatar outpost and resettled in the homes they had evacuated as part of an honest deal with the Benntt-Lapid-Gantz government. They soon discovered that they, the residents of Evyatar, were the only honest party in the deal.
According to Channel 13 reporter Moriah Ashraf Wahlberg, following the assessment of the security situation in light of the terrorist murders in Eli, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a limited meeting with Ministers Ron Dermer and Yoav Galant, to discuss the possibility of letting the Evyatar settlers come home in response to the attack.
Immediately after the funerals of the four victims of the attack, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying Netanyahu, Gallant, and Bezalel Smotrich agreed on promoting an immediate plan for approximately 1,000 new housing units adjacent to the site of the deadly attack.
In keeping with their agreement with the government, the residents evacuated the outpost on Friday afternoon, July 2, 2021, and it was taken over by the IDF without the demolition of the buildings. The status of the land was going to be examined by the civil administration, and if it were found suitable, a yeshiva would be established on the site, with residences for the yeshiva staff and students, to be followed later by ordinary settlers. In October 2021, the civil administration completed its survey and found that approximately 15 acres were state-land on which a new settlement could be established. However, despite the survey’s conclusion, the area was never declared as state land. On February 2, 2022, on his last day in office, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit approved the outline according to which Evyatar would be recognized as standing on state land.
Netanyahu’s government did nothing to follow through on the AG’s recommendation.
Now, two years after the promise which was broken by the previous government, and seven months after a coalition agreement was signed which reads: “The government will immediately advance the Evyatar outline that was established by the 36th government,” Evyatar’s community took matters into its own hands.
The head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, joined the families and ascended to the outpost with them, together with the Rabbi of Samaria, Rabbi Eliakim Levanon, MK Tzvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), and the leaders of the Nachala movement Zvi Elimelech Sharbaf and Daniela Weiss.
