Activists end one-day Sa-Nur standoff, call for settlement to be rebuilt
"It is clear that there is no person left in the State of Israel who believes that this displacement was correct."
By TOVAH LAZAROFFSettlers resettle Sa-Nur overnight, Nov. 17, 2020(photo credit: SARIA DIAMENT)
Right-wing activists ended their one-day stand to urge the government to rebuild the former settlement of Sa-Nur, which the IDF destroyed during the 2005 Disengagement.Some 20 families – approximately 100 people, including women and children – illegally set up an overnight encampment Monday at Sa-Nur in the northern West Bank. The group included both evacuees and younger activists.By late afternoon, Coalition Chairman MK Miki Zohar (Likud) swayed the activists to leave the site, which is a closed military zone.Some 20 families – approximately 100 people, including women and children – illegally set up an overnight encampment at Sa-Nur in the northern West Bank. The group included both evacuees and younger activists.By late afternoon, Coalition Chairman Miki Zohar (Likud) swayed the activists to leave the site, which is a closed military zone.They did so only after Zohar promised to personally raise the issue with Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu.Zohar had traveled to the site in the afternoon with Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, who was himself evacuated from the former settlement. Three other Likud parliamentarians who joined them were; Hava-Etty Atia, Katherin Shitrit and Amit Halevi. MK Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina) issued a supportive statement and MK Ariel Kaliner (Likud) was the only one of the politicians to join the activists overnight in setting up the encampment.“We have to do everything possible to return here,” Zohar said.The politicians called on the government to authorize the four settlements in Samaria – Sa-Nur, Homesh, Ganim and Kadim – that were demolished during the 2005 Disengagement and declared closed military zones.Atia called on the Knesset to repeal those portions of the Disengagement law under which the four Samaria communities were razed.She also demanded that the government authorize the outposts and annex all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria to sovereign Israel.Israel suspended its annexation plans in favor of normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani will be in Israel on Wednesday to discuss that deal signed under the rubric of the US brokered Abraham Accords.Atia said she welcomed the deals, but said that “in conjunction we must immediately annex the territory of Judea and Samaria and apply sovereignty.”Shitrit noted that according to the Jewish calendar this is the Hebrew month of Kislev on which the Hanukkah holiday falls.“This is the season of miracles,” she said.‘I hope that with God’s help we can influence decision makers in the Israeli government to restore and correct the injustice caused here 15 years ago,” Shitrit added.The demolition of the Samaria settlements was part of a larger Disengagement plan by which Israeli withdraw from Gaza and knocked down 21 settlements there.But Israel did not withdraw from any territory in Samaria and this has fueled a persisted campaign to rebuild the four settlements there, that began almost as soon as the bulldozers left.Dagan has repeatedly pushed for Knesset legislation to rescind the Disengagement edict in general and in northern Samaria, specifically. The bills have had support from the Likud, Yamina, Shas and UTJ. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has persistently stymied such initiatives.Activists have also over the years tried to illegally resettle at the site, but have been evacuated by the IDF and the Border Police.Dagan renewed the drive to resettle the four communities this year, when US President Donald Trump published his map that set out the contours of a two-state resolution to the conflict.The map allowed Israel to eventually apply sovereignty to 30% of the West Bank. But the land, on which these four communities are located, was not part of the sovereignty map.Activists have placed the issue back on the agenda, now that the Trump administration is on its way out, in hope that Netanyahu will take action on the matter before US President-elect Joe Biden enters the White House on January 20.At Sa-Nur, Dagan said that the 2005 Disengagement was one of the lowest points in Israel’s history.“It was a crime against humanity. It was a crime against Zionism,” he said.“We want to remove this mark of Cain from Israel’s history,” Dagan said,He recalled how he and his wife had arrived at Sa-Nur on their wedding night, never imaging that would be forcibly evacuated there.“Today I came to tell you [the politicians] that the ball is now in your hands. I expect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to notify me that I can issue building permits to those who are here, so we can rebuild homes and the nursery and the library and the secretariat, What happened here is a mistake, that can be fixed,” he said.Tzvi Joffre contributed to this report.
