Historic Course Correction: Dozens of Families Prepare to Launch a New Community in Northern Samaria

The settlement push in northern Samaria is picking up speed: Dozens of families, including reservist soldiers and alumni of pre-military academies, are now preparing to establish the new community Emek Dotan. The goal is to get underway as early as this summer, pending the necessary approvals from the government.

The founding nucleus includes alumni of pre-military programs from Tiberias, Lod, and Bruchin, led by Rabbi Chaim Baruch. Over the past year, the Samaria Regional Council, together with the Amana movement, has been advancing the formation of several additional settlement cores in the area—some have already received official approvals, while others await a formal government decision.

The community is planned for a strategic spot that once housed the Menashe Brigade base (חטמ"ר מנשה). The base was evacuated and moved outside Samaria about twenty years ago, as part of the Disengagement Plan, along with the communities of Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim. Settlement leaders refer to the evacuation of the base at the time as "the fifth community" that was cleared, and the nucleus’s move onto the land is seen as a step to correct that and to reestablish continuous settlement between existing hubs such as Mavo Dotan.

The initiative is part of the "Million Plan," a strategic program led by Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan to bring one million residents to Samaria in the coming years. Establishing Emek Dotan is a central step toward the ambitious target of founding 18 new communities in northern Samaria.

On a tour held in the area of the future community with Yossi Dagan, Amana Secretary-General Ze'ev Hever, and Rabbi Baruch, the speakers emphasized the move’s historic significance. "You are witnessing a historic event," Dagan told the families. "We are deciding to establish a new community next to the brigade HQ that was destroyed. Hashem gave us a second chance to lift up northern Samaria, and this time we will not miss it."

Dagan added: "We have come here to correct three sins: the sin of selling Joseph, the sin of evacuating northern Samaria two decades ago, and the third sin—that we did not do this until now." According to him, establishing the community restores a Jewish presence to a region with deep biblical resonance, as Emek Dotan is identified in tradition as the place where Joseph sought his brothers.

Rabbi Chaim Baruch shared with excitement: "There is a wonderful group here that wants to come up and establish a beit midrash already in Elul. I am jealous of you—founding a community on a rocky mountain is a great privilege, and from here something big will yet emerge." Hever noted that this is a significant period for the settlement movement and stressed that all activity is being carried out in full coordination with the political leadership.

As noted, moving onto the land is planned for this coming summer, subject to final government approval. In the meantime, the nucleus is continuing logistical preparations with political backing from Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Israel Katz. Receiving formal government approval will constitute the final green light to begin physically moving onto the land.