30 Settler Families Reopen Kadim After 20-Year Evacuation as Israel Expands West Bank Outposts
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 21
30 Settler Families Reopen Kadim After 20-Year Evacuation as Israel Expands West Bank Outposts
3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 21
Summary
Thirty Israeli “pioneer families” moved into Kadim on Thursday, reopening the West Bank settlement 21 years after Israel evacuated it under the 2005 disengagement plan.
The return follows the current government's reversal of a ban on Israelis settling there; Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and other senior officials attended the ceremony, framing it as a restoration of northern West Bank settlements.
Kadim is the last of the four northern West Bank settlements dismantled in 2005 to reopen, after Ganim, Sanur and Homesh, while Israel has approved more than 100 new settlements since late 2022, including 19 in the area.
Palestinian residents near Jenin said the expansion has brought road demolitions, land seizures, armed settler intimidation and fear, with one new military outpost rising on land under full Palestinian Authority control for the first time since 1993.
Peace Now says the rapid buildout around Jenin reflects a push to entrench facts on the ground before Israel's October elections, deepening pressure on Palestinian communities.