Israel has re-established the settlement of Kadim in the occupied West Bank, two decades after it was closed by a previous Israeli government. Thirty "pioneer families" arrived on Thursday, driven by a wave of Jewish nationalism supported by Israel's current government. They arrived under military escort, with Israeli flags flying, and carrying bedding, furniture, and building materials.
Israel's government has overturned a 20-year ban on Jewish settlements around Jenin. Palestinian residents view this expansion with fear. All Israeli settlements and outposts are illegal under international law, and outposts are also illegal under Israeli law.
Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated at the opening ceremony, "21 years after the crime of expulsion from northern Samaria, we have completed the correction [...] and have returned to the settlement of Kadim." He was joined by other senior Israeli politicians and Yossi Dagan, head of the regional settlers' council, who vowed settlers would return to Gaza.
Kadim, located on a hillside outside Jenin, was evacuated in 2005 as part of a unilateral Disengagement Plan. At the time, the settlements were considered too isolated and costly to protect.
In recent weeks, trailer homes have reappeared on the hilltop. Media were denied access to the settlement.
A Palestinian vegetable farmer, who has lived in the area for 53 years, recalled watching Kadim being built and then evacuated. He expressed fear about the settlers' return, citing past incidents of shops and businesses being demolished and Palestinians being driven away from their land. His family fled to the area during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and he stated, "There's no more displacement left in me. We're living with a sense of resignation. It's a life of fear."
After Kadim and three other settlements were evacuated in 2005, Israelis were banned from settling in the area. Israel's current government overturned this ban. Kadim is the last of these settlements to reopen; Ganim, Sanur, and Homesh have already been reopened.
Since taking power in late 2022, the Israeli government has approved over 100 new settlements in the West Bank, including 19 in the northern West Bank.
Hagit Ofran, director of the Settlement Watch programme at Peace Now, believes the rapid construction is part of a race to expand settlements before Israeli elections in October.
Emek Dotan, a new settlement west of Jenin, was formally opened last Sunday and is now home to nearly two dozen Jewish families. Samer Jaber, a teacher from a nearby Palestinian village, described how settlers began filming residents and shining floodlights into homes even before families moved in. He stated, "Fear dominates everything. We are completely defenceless. All of them have weapons."
Two new Israeli military bases are also under construction near Jenin, along with a military outpost on seized Palestinian land beside Jenin Refugee Camp. This is the first Israeli military base built on land under full Palestinian Authority control since the 1993 Oslo Accords.
The Palestinian Authority Governor for Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rub, expressed concern that the seizure of land around the refugee camp signals a plan to house settlers within the city, dividing it. He described the past two decades without settlers as "bliss" and the current situation as "hell orchestrated by them and their assaults."
The road running from Kadim through the northern West Bank to Israel, which previously had a café and dozens of Palestinian shops, has recently been reduced to rubble after demolition by the Israeli army. The article notes a correlation between the countdown to Israeli elections in October and the number of Palestinian buildings demolished and new settler caravans established.
