First Families Move Into Emek Dotan as Northern Samaria ‘Revolution’ Expands

The first families moved into the new community of Emek Dotan in northern Samaria on Sunday, arriving with trucks and belongings to begin living in residential structures already placed at the site.

The move is part of a broader push to rebuild Jewish communities across northern Samaria. That effort began with the four communities Israel evacuated there during the 2005 Disengagement: Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim, all of which are now being restored at different stages.

Emek Dotan goes a step further for the project. It was not one of those four communities, but a newly established one, as part of the broader plan now calling for 19 communities across northern Samaria.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan summarized the shift during a visit to Emek Dotan last month, as the first residential structures were being placed at the site: “Four communities were destroyed — we are establishing 19.”

The legal reversal began in 2023, when the Knesset amended the Disengagement Law and removed the ban preventing Israelis from returning to the four evacuated northern Samaria communities. In 2024, then-defense minister Yoav Gallant canceled the military order barring Israelis from Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim. The government then moved to formally reestablish the communities, approving Homesh and Sa-Nur in 2025 and later advancing Ganim and Kadim as recognized communities as well.

The change became visible on the ground this year, as four communities evacuated in 2005 are now at some stage of physical restoration or resettlement. Families moved into Chomesh in March, followed by 16 families who moved into Sa-Nur in April. In July, the first residential caravans were brought into Ganim. Caravans also arrived at Kadim in early August ahead of its founding families.

But the project has already gone further as well. Families moved into the new community of Eival on Mount Eival in July, also which was not one of the four communities evacuated in 2005. 

The first phase was therefore aimed at rebuilding what Israel removed in the Disengagement. The next phase is establishing additional communities that did not exist there before.

The Samaria Regional Council and Amana are advancing what they call the “Connection Plan,” which now calls for 19 communities across northern Samaria, combining the four restored communities with a larger group of new ones. Thousands of families have expressed interest in joining the founding groups.

The recent pace has also been driven by government funding. In July, the government approved approximately NIS 1.3 billion for what it calls “pioneer neighborhoods” in newly approved communities. The program allows initial caravans, access roads, utilities and other basic infrastructure to be installed before permanent neighborhoods are completed, allowing families to begin living at the sites earlier.

That mechanism helps explain the rapid sequence seen in recent weeks: caravans arriving at Ganim and Kadim, families moving into Eival, structures being placed at Emek Dotan and, now, its first residents moving in.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the broader policy as a “settlement revolution” at a Religious Zionism party conference in February devoted to the government’s settlement expansion. He said one of his goals was to eliminate the possibility of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. Dagan and other supporters have also described the new communities as part of an effort to create stronger Israeli population continuity across northern Samaria.

For the families arriving in Emek Dotan, Sunday marked another concrete step in a process that began with reversing the 2005 evacuation and has since expanded well beyond it.

“Today we have the privilege of fulfilling a dream of generations,” Dagan said. “In the place where Joseph searched for his brothers, a new community is being established today.”