Israel re-establishes closed West Bank settlement, defying growing international protests
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- Thirty "pioneer families" arrived at the settlement of Kadim on Thursday from Tel Aviv, reopening the last of four settlements evacuated in 2005 under Israel's unilateral Disengagement Plan.
- Israel's government has overturned a 20-year ban on Jewish settlement around Jenin, approving more than 100 new settlements across the West Bank since taking power in late 2022, including 19 in the northern West Bank.
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich led the Kadim opening ceremony alongside Israel's Justice Minister, Speaker of the Knesset, and settler council head Yossi Dagan, who vowed settlers would one day return to Gaza as well.
- Peace Now's Hagit Ofran attributes the rapid northern West Bank construction to a government race to expand settlements before Israeli elections scheduled for October.
- Two new Israeli military bases are rising near Jenin, including an outpost at Jabriyat — the first Israeli military base on land under full Palestinian Authority control since the 1993 Oslo Accords, built after Israel evacuated thousands from Jenin Refugee Camp in 2025.
- Palestinian residents including a 53-year-old farmer and teacher Samer Jaber report systematic harassment — settlers filming homes, shining floodlights through windows at night, and driving families off agricultural land.
- Palestinian Authority Governor Kamal Abu al-Rub warned that land seizure near Jenin Refugee Camp signals settler housing "in the heart of a Palestinian city," dividing it like Hebron or Jerusalem.
Why it matters: With Israeli elections in October and over 100 new West Bank settlements approved since late 2022, the Kadim reopening is the most symbolic piece of a broader land-seizure campaign that now includes the first Israeli military base on Palestinian Authority-controlled land since Oslo. Palestinian residents describe daily harassment and demolition of shops, while Al Jazeera and Euronews show the international response remains diplomatic condemnation without enforcement.
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