- Published
A new generation of Israeli settlers has returned to the settlement of Kadim, in the occupied West Bank, two decades after it was closed by a previous Israeli government.
asserted
it → publish → government
Thirty "pioneer families" had arrived in the settlement on Thursday from Tel Aviv, according to the regional settlers' council, riding a wave of Jewish nationalism driven by Israel's current government.
uncertain
families → arrive → government
They came in small groups, some under military escort, blue and white Israeli flags fluttering from their cars as they passed Palestinian villages and farmlands.
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they → come → villages
Some dragged trailers loaded with bedding, furniture and building material.
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Some → drag → bedding
Israel's government has overturned a 20-year ban on Jewish settlements around Jenin.
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government → overturn → Jenin
Palestinian residents are watching the new push on settlement expansion here with fear.
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residents → watch → fear
Outposts are also illegal under Israeli law, though are often supported by state services and funding.
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Outposts → support → services
"21 years after the crime of expulsion from northern Samaria, we have completed the correction […] and have returned to the settlement of Kadim," said Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at the opening ceremony, using the Biblical word for the northern West Bank.
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Minister → complete → Bank
Alongside him were Israel's Justice Minister, the Speaker of the Knesset, and Yossi Dagan, head of the regional settlers' council, who vowed that settlers would one day return to Gaza too.
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settlers → vow → Gaza
Kadim, on a small hillside outside the Palestinian city of Jenin, was evacuated in 2005 by a previous Israeli government as part of a wider unilateral Disengagement Plan that also saw all Jewish settlers and soldiers pulled out of Gaza, and three other settlements in the northern West Bank dismantled.
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settlements → evacuate → Bank
At the time, the four settlements were considered too isolated and costly to protect, and of little strategic value.
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settlements → consider → value
In recent weeks, white trailer homes have appeared on the hilltop here again, in preparation for families to return.
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families → appear → preparation
Our request to speak to people at the opening ceremony was refused; we were told no media were allowed to enter the settlement today.
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media → speak → settlement
Driving along a dirt track on the hill behind it, we met a Palestinian vegetable farmer, living in the house he was born in 53 years ago.
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he → drive → house
He told me how, as a boy, he watched Kadim being built for the first time, then watched again as the settlers there were forced out by the government twenty years later.
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settlers → tell → government
"Back then, the settlers were living alongside us, and we coexisted peacefully.
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we → live → us
They lived their lives and we lived ours," he told me.
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he → live → me
Now, watching them return, he's fearful.
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he → watch → ?
"I'm afraid of the events spreading around us, and the bypass road [where] they demolished shops and businesses," he said.
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he → spread → shops
"They drove my nephews away from their vegetables and citrus trees, telling them 'you have no place here, don't come back'".
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you → drive → place
He said his family fled here from Haifa during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
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family → say → War
"There's no more displacement left in me," he said.
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he → be → me
"We're living with a sense of resignation.
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We → live → resignation
After Kadim and the three other settlements here were evacuated in 2005, Israelis were banned from settling in this area.
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Israelis → evacuate → area
Israel's current government overturned that ban.
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government → overturn → ban
Kadim is the last of the settlements evacuated in 2005 to reopen.
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Kadim → evacuate → 2005
Ganim, Sanur and Homesh have already been formally opened, and families moved in.
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families → open → ?
Since it took power in late 2022, it has approved more than 100 new settlements across the West Bank, including 19 in the northern West Bank.
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it → take → Bank
Hagit Ofran, director of the Settlement Watch programme at Peace Now, says the rapid construction in Jenin is part of a wider race by the Israeli government to expand settlements in the West Bank before Israeli elections are held in October.
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elections → say → October
One of those new settlements is Emek Dotan, to the west of Jenin, formally opened last Sunday and now home to almost two dozen Jewish families.
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One → open → families
From the small hamlet of Palestinian houses next door to Emek Dotan, teacher Samer Jaber, has watched the settlement take shape: first the bulldozers, then the caravans lifted into place.
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settlement → watch → place
The problems began even before most of the families moved in, he said.
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he → begin → families
"Groups come and stand opposite our houses, filming us," he told me.
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he → come → me
"Yesterday they came and stood here, filming me and my children.
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they → come → me
Every time my wife stepped outside, they filmed her too.
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they → step → her
They try to enter our homes.
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They → try → homes
And they go house by house, shining powerful floodlights directly through all the windows at two or three in the morning.
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they → go → morning
Samer is partially blind and has a leg injury that makes moving difficult.
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moving → have → injury
"Fear dominates everything.
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Fear → dominate → everything
We are completely defenceless," he said.
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he → say → ?
…and 17 more, not listed.
