Millions of Jews will live in Judea and Samaria in the future, pledged Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, as he spoke at the end of a Sukkot holiday hike to the remains of an Ottoman-era train station at Sebastia, which drew thousands of participants.
"We will bring millions of Jews to Judea and Samaria," said Dagan. He spoke just over a week after the Sovereignty Movement published a declaration signed by 56 politicians, including Likud Party head and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to support massive housing construction in West Bank settlements if elected by way of solving the country's housing crisis and bringing down real estate prices.
At present, there are less than half-a-million setters in the West Bank.
Dagan, who has been the face of the settlers' campaign against the rising number of Palestinian shooting attacks, ignored the housing crisis and spoke of the importance of settlement building as a statement against terror.
Prior to the start of the march, St.-Sgt. Ido Baruch, 21, was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack, just three kilometers away from the event.
Palestinians shoot a settler rally at the entryway to Nablus
"In the last month, we have witnessed a wave of terror that the Palestinian Authority has encouraged," Dagan said.
"In the last month, we have witnessed a wave of terror that the Palestinian Authority has encouraged."
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan
Dagan accused the government of not doing enough to halt the violence, including restoring roadblocks that had been taken down to allow Palestinians freedom of movement. He also reissued his call for the IDF to embark on a wide-ranging military campaign against Palestinian terror akin to the 2002 Operation Defense Shield.
“The response to terror has to be building in the Land of Israel,” Dagan said.
Sebastia has historic significance for the settler movement and for the Samaria region. A group of right-wing activists attempted to build a settlement there in 1974, with some 25 families.
They agreed to leave after reaching an agreement with the government to authorize the first settlement in Samaria, at a different location, which became the settlement of Kedumim.
“Here, at this site, we are swearing devotion to the land,” Dagan said.
Religious Zionist Party head Bezalel Smotrich said, “We take it upon ourselves to continue that mission with love and devotion” for the Land of Israel.
Back then, no one would have believed how the area of Samaria would develop, Smotrich said, adding that many still don’t believe that in the future, this whole region will be “one contiguous area of Jewish settlement within the sovereign Land Israel.”