Two years after the repeal of the Disengagement Law, Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich announced that he is advancing the return of settlements evacuated from northern Samaria, including Ganim and Kadim.
These settlements will soon join the already-approved settlements of Homesh and Sa-Nur, he said.
"We are working on this now," Smotrich said in an interview with the "Ofek" weekend newsletter. He added, "We are deciding to bring Ganim and Kadim as well, and I hope this will happen in the coming weeks, and help correct the sin of the expulsion. The people of Israel are correcting the sin in Gaza, and I hope we will succeed there too, completing the correction of the sin in northern Samaria."
Smotrich also spoke about his personal journey since the expulsion from Gush Katif: "I was arrested by the Shin Bet because I tried to prevent the events of October 7. I was arrested because we cried out with hoarse voices against the danger that was looming. We warned exactly about this, we warned that Gaza would become a terror capital, and we warned that missiles would be fired from there."
"I remember all those arrogant people who stood confidently on the platform and said 'If they dare again, just wait and see what we'll do to them.' So yes, we saw. They dared again and again, and we received all the de-legitimization and the events of October 7. That's what happens when you run away and hide behind walls and fences," Smotrich said.
He emphasized that "a large part of what we are doing today in Judea and Samaria is the result of the insights from October 7. The vast majority of the people of Israel understand that Judea and Samaria are the security belt of the State of Israel, so that Kfar Saba will not be another Kfar Aza, Netanya will not be another Be'eri, and Nitzanei Oz will not, God forbid, be another Nahal Oz."
"What we are achieving in this term is simply erasing the idea of a Palestinian state. Eventually, with God's help, we will do it officially, but first of all, de facto, through the population revolution, the settlements, the normalization, the construction, the establishment of infrastructure, and the declaration of state lands. We are simply removing this idea from the table as part of the lessons from October 7 and establishing facts on the ground," Smotrich concluded.