Samaria Settlements: New Communities in the West Bank

A new settlement called "Noa" was inaugurated Monday in northern Samaria, located south of the communities of Ganim and Kadim.

The establishment marks the eighth settlement founded by the Samaria Regional Council in less than a year. Pioneering families have moved onto the land and begun establishing what organizers hope will become a thriving community.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan was joined by Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar, Settlement Affairs and National Missions Minister Orit Strock, Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli, Knesset member Boaz Bismuth, and Ze'ev Haber Zambish. During the ceremony, Dagan recited the blessing "Baruch Matziv Gevul Almanah" ("Blessed is He who establishes the boundary of the widow"), traditionally said upon establishing a new Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. Participants affixed a mezuzah and dedicated the first residential structures in the settlement.

The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony (Photo: Roy Hadi)

Noa is situated south of Ganim and Kadim, two communities that were evacuated during Israel's 2005 disengagement from Gaza and northern Samaria and have recently been re-established. The new settlement is intended to strengthen the Jewish presence in northern Samaria and create a continuous settlement bloc in the area. It was established approximately one year after a cabinet decision led by Ministers Israel Katz and Bezalel Smotrich, as part of the "Connection Plan" spearheaded by the Samaria Regional Council. That broader initiative envisions establishing 19 new settlements across northern Samaria, and is part of the council's "Million in Samaria" plan to bring one million residents to the region.

"Blessed is He who establishes the boundary of the widow. There is no blessing more moving or appropriate for this moment", Dagan said. "In a place where they sought to uproot and expel, today we merit to build a new settlement and bring pioneering families to the land. After years of stubborn struggle, northern Samaria is rising again." He added that "the establishment of Noa is a victorious Zionist answer to all who thought settlement would stop. From the four settlements that were uprooted, we will grow into many settlements, flourishing communities and thousands of families".

Shira Bar-Gad, a mother of two who moved to the new settlement from Jerusalem, said: "We waited for this a long time. It's moving that it's finally happening, that it's transforming from a hill with nothing on it into a settlement. Now we see the road being paved and the caravans that arrived—it's really moving. Yehuda, my older son, is also excited and talks about it. When we visited my sister in her settlement, he said, 'It's true that there was once nothing here either, right?'"