Cabinet ministers, members of Knesset, local politicians, and hundreds of settler activists celebrated the reestablishment and repopulation of the settlement of Sa-Nur in the northern West Bank on Sunday, nearly 21 years after it was evacuated under the Disengagement Plan.

Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan, who was one of the residents evacuated from Sa-Nur in 2005, was one of the 16 families who took up residence anew in the settlement on Sunday.

Speaking at the ceremony, Defense Minister Israel Katz repeated previous promises that the government is working on legalizing 140 illegally established farming outposts around the West Bank.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the reestablishment of Sa-Nur as a “national holiday” and a “historic correction” to the “sinful expulsion from northern Samaria,” in reference to the four settlements in the northern West Bank, including Sa-Nur, that were evacuated under the Disengagement, which also saw Israel dismantle all its settlements in Gaza and pull out of the Strip.

The left-wing Peace Now organization called the reestablishment of the four settlements “stupid and wicked,” citing what it said was the increased security burden the move would add to the IDF and the negative impact it would have on the ability of local Palestinians to access their land.

In December, Israel expropriated 500 dunams of private land in order to build a six-kilometer bypass road to reach Sa-Nur without passing through Palestinian........

© The Times of Israel