Samaria Regional Chief (l) at the event
Samaria Regional Chief (l) at the eventצילום: מוא"ז שומרון

The settlement movement scored a victory this week, with the first ‘fledgling settlement’ hooked up to the national electrical network.

At a secret event earlier this week, the town of Havat Yair in Samaria was officially linked to Israel’s national electric grid, marking the first time one of the small ‘fledgling’ Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria was granted permission to tie into the national electric network.

For years, the residents of 46 small Israeli towns across Judea and Samaria, dubbed “fledgling communities”, have sought full legal normalization, including integration into Israel’s infrastructure networks.

Plans to normalize the towns were frozen by Defense Minister Benny Gantz last year, under the Netanyahu government.

The Bennett government came under increasing pressure to take steps to normalize the fledgling communities’ status after the passage of the Electricity Law in January. The Electricity Law, aimed at providing de facto legalization for thousands of illegal buildings in the Arab sector in the Negev and Galilee, enabled illegally-built Arab homes inside pre-1967 Israel to connect to the national electrical grid.

In May, Israel’s Deputy Attorney General, Carmit Yulis, ruled in favor of plans to link the “fledgling communities” to the national electric grid, paving the way for this week’s move to link Havat Yair to the national network.

Havat Yair, home to some 70 families, is located northwest of Ariel in central Samaria.

Following Havat Yair’s inclusion into the national electric grid, similar steps are expected in the coming days for a number of other fledgling settlements.

“After years of work, I am happy that the Deputy Attorney General made the right choice and decided to allow the electrical connections for the fledgling settlements,” said Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked.

“As someone who has worked with the fledgling settlements since entering politics, this decision is very exciting for me personally – and now it will be implemented.”