Israel Re-establishes Closed West Bank Settlement, Defying International Protests
BBC News reports on the return of Israeli settlers to the previously evacuated settlement of Kadim in the occupied West Bank.
By Lucy Williamson, Middle East Correspondent
Thirty "pioneer families" from Tel Aviv arrived at Kadim on Thursday, marking a significant turn in Jewish nationalist sentiments under Israel’s current government. All Israeli settlements and settler outposts are considered illegal under international law, with outposts also contravening Israeli law despite often receiving state support.
"Twenty-one years after the crime of expulsion from northern Samaria, we have completed the correction… and have returned to the settlement of Kadim," declared Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at the opening ceremony. Alongside him were other high-ranking Israeli politicians who expressed their commitment to settlers returning to Gaza as well.
Kadim, situated on a hilltop outside the Palestinian city of Jenin, was vacated in 2005 by a previous Israeli government as part of the Disengagement Plan that also involved evacuating all Jewish settlers from Gaza and three other West Bank settlements. At the time, these settlements were deemed too remote and expensive to defend, and of little strategic value.
However, in recent weeks, white trailer homes have reappeared on Kadim’s hilltop, preparing for families to return. Access to the settlement was denied to media during the opening ceremony. Driving near the settlement, a Palestinian vegetable farmer recalled the coexistence between settlers and Palestinians when Kadim was first built, only to be forced out twenty years later. He expressed fear about potential violence and destruction in the area, citing the loss of businesses and land for his family and others.
"There’s no more displacement left in me," he said, "We’re living with a sense of resignation. It’s a life of fear."
