Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has cautioned that a deal to prevent the forced eviction of the West Bank outpost of Evyatar had still not been finalized, even though settlers had announced hours earlier on Monday that they had accepted the terms of an agreement.
“This is a sensitive issue. The matter is not yet closed. We are trying to reach a compromise,” Bennett told his faction, adding that it was still too early to celebrate.
Bennett added that Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue and White) and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked (Yamina) were working on an agreement with the settlers.
Hours earlier, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan and Nahala Movement leaders Daniella Weiss and Zvi Elimelech Sharaf held a celebratory press conference to announce a rare deal between themselves and the government to allow for eventual legalization of the hilltop community.
“We have decided that for the sake of unity of the nation of Israel, we will abide by this agreement,” Dagan told reporters at Evyatar.
He added that the decision was not “a simple one” and had been reached after a long night in which Evyatar residents and activists had debated the matter.
The fate of the Evyatar outpost is considered a test for Bennett’s new government, which lacks internal consensus on the matter.
In addition, approval of the outpost would create tensions with the Biden administration. Its removal, however, has the potential to destabilize the security situation in the West Bank.
Prior to reports of a deal, it had been expected that the IDF would forcibly evict the 53 families and scores of right-wing activists who have moved onto the outpost since its inception in May.
Until a compromise deal is finalized, such an eviction could be activated at any moment.
KAN reported that despite Gantz’s desire for a voluntary evacuation, he is opposed to some of the details of the deal – which is one of the reasons that the agreement has not yet been concluded. According to a settler source, there are also some outstanding legal issues that have to be resolved.
Settlers on Monday reported the terms of a compromise that spoke of the outpost’s eventual legalization in slow stages.
There has been no official confirmation of the terms of this deal under which an army base would immediately be placed at the Evyatar site, and from August a yeshiva would be opened on the small hilltop, located off Route 505 near the Tapuah junction.
Route 505 links the West Bank’s Samaria region with the Jordan Valley and settlers have argued for an Israeli presence there to prevent Palestinians from driving a wedge between the two regions.
The compromise then calls for the IDF to conclude a land survey within six months to ensure that the land on which Evyatar is situated is not privately-owned by Palestinians – and that its status, which is now designated as survey land whose status is unclear, can be changed to state land.
After the land’s status is confirmed, the government would be expected to authorize Evyatar as a new settlement or a new neighborhood of one, according to the deal.
Earlier this month, the Samaria Regional Council submitted an Evyatar master plan to the Civil Administration that called for it to be designated as a neighborhood of Kfar Tapuah having 100 homes.
In exchange, according to the deal, the families and activists living in Evyatar will leave voluntarily by the end of the week and the modular structures and equipment at the site will remain there until the hilltop can be legally developed.
THE INITIATIVE to build a new Jewish community at the Evyatar site first arose in 2013, when settlers built an outpost there in response to the terror attack at the Tapuah junction which claimed the life of Evyatar Borovsky, 31. The IDF evacuated the site fairly swiftly and continues to prevent settlers from rebuilding there.
Settlers and right-wing activists returned to Evyatar in May after a Palestinian terrorist fatally shot 19-year-old Yehuda Guetta while he stood at a bus stop at the same junction.
Dagan said that he would have expected that after the Guetta murder, both the Right and Left parties in Bennett’s coalition would unite around the rational Zionist repose to create a new settlement in Judea and Samaria.
“Unfortunately, this did not happen,” Dagan said.
“Therefore, for us, this is not a day of joy. It is not a day of happiness, but it is a day of progress,” Dagan said as he spoke of the positive benefits of the deal.
He sat flanked by activists behind a number of folding tables, from which hung Israeli flags.
Weiss said that “it is painful to think of the families that have to leave, but I am already dreaming of the ones that will come.”
The achievement here was not measured by whether those in Evyatar stood firm against the government and the IDF, said Weiss, who is a former Kedumim Council head. Success was measured by their ability to sway the government to move the goal post in their direction, something that has surely occurred here.
The government and the IDF are strong, she said, so the objective is to remind them of the importance of the Jewish return to the Land of Israel.
“We have to bring the government to a higher spiritual, principled and pioneering plain,” Weiss said.
A VETERAN settler leader, she wore a white button-down shirt and her hair was covered by a blue scarf.
She recalled how she had spent almost two months with the families on Evyatar, who had lived without basic necessities.
“There is great ache in the heart,” but if “I have to compare the weight of the joy with that of the pain, then the joy wins out over the pain,” Weiss said.
“We have successfully climbed an additional rung in the building of the Land of Israel,” she said.
The Evyatar initiative is unusual in the annals of the settlement movement for its speed in galvanizing so many families and the scope of the construction of so many modular homes so quickly.
Health Minister Michael Horowitz (Meretz) said that his party opposes any attempt to authorize the outpost.
“Evyatar is an illegal outpost and must be evacuated: period. It’s the law,” Horowitz said. “We are bound to the law. No one is above the law and it is not open to interpretation. This is a clear and decisive position.”
The Left wing group Peace Now accused Gantz of capitulating to the settlers by contemplating a deal.
“The coalition leaders should work for full eviction of this illegal outpost. No ifs no buts!” Peace Now tweeted.