Residents of the West Bank Evyatar outpost kept to their deal with the government and voluntarily left their small hilltop community at 4 p.m. on Friday, some two months after they first arrived.
"We left the mountain, but our hearts remain there," said Evyatar resident Amichai Ben-David.
"The heart of the nation is with the Evyatar community, that is standing waiting, with homes, trees, gardens and paths," he said, adding that, "with God's help we will soon return in a stately and legal manner."
"The settlement of Evyatar is proof of the nation's love for the land. Thanks to that love and devotion and with God's help, there will still be many more 'Evyatars,'" he said.
Based on the agreement brokered this week, an army base will be placed on the rocky hilltop, which had only a dirt road and sandy lot when the 53 families and scores of activists entered.
By the time they left, they had managed to place small modular homes on the site, as well as a synagogue, a nursery and a small playground. The main small road was paved, as were some small side ones complete with street signs. On the last day, Friday, settlers erected an enormous Star of David at the site and set up a large Israeli flag.
All of those structures will now remain at the site while the Civil Administration evaluates whether the hilltop, whose ownership status is unclear and is thus considered survey land, can be classified as state land.
Palestinians from the village of Beita and Yatma claim it belongs to them. But the Samaria Regional Council and the Nahala Movement, which spearheaded the Evyatar initiative, have disputed that claim and have argued that it can be classified as state land.
Should the Civil Administration investigation determine that the Evyatar hilltop can be classified as state land, a yeshiva will be placed at the site and plans to legalize the outpost as a neighborhood of the Kfar Tapuah settlement and/or as an entirely new settlement will be advanced.
It is rare for so many families and activists to rally so quickly around the construction of an outpost. It is also unusual for such a community to receive a nod of support from the government so quickly .
The Evyatar outpost was illegally built without any authorization. Settlers felt that they had the moral ground to construct a new community to protest the terror attack at the nearby Tapuah junction that claimed the life of 19-year-old Yehuda Guetta in the beginning of May.
They also believe that grassroots action is needed to build new communities in Judea and Samaria, because they hold that the government has failed to advance such a project.
AMONG THOSE who were inspired to head to Evyatar was Serah Nisson, an architect and a mother of six, who packed all her children in the car with sandwiches and a tent the moment she saw a text message calling on activists to head to the outpost.
She barely discussed it with her husband, who called from work, to ask if they should go. she said, adding that she assumed the two of them were aligned.
He thought they should visit and ponder the possibility, but she had already moved the family there.
When her husband returned to the Rehelim settlement after work at night, he found the house empty and called to see where she was.
"Pack your things and join us," she said.
Nisson said she takes to heart an imperative that the entire nation of Israel must raise to build Judea and Samaria.
She spoke with the Post as she sat in the small two-room modular house in Evyatar, which already had a stove, a refrigerator, a sink, a small table and air-conditioning, but not enough space for the sofas that were set up outside under an awning.
An immigrant from Paris, who moved first to the Kiryat Arba settlement 20 years ago and then to the Rehelim settlement when it was just an outpost, she was no stranger to the call to build up Judea and Samaria.
Each move, she said, including from Paris to Israel, was a shock, but she has been inspired at each point by the call to serve a greater and higher purpose.
"Paris is the French city of light and the Land of Israel is the Jewish land of light. It doesn't matter where one lives – everywhere in Israel is the city of light," Nisson said.
A small, slight woman, with an easy smile, Nisson sat with her youngest child on her lap.
"We hope the state will authorize it, even if it takes time," she said.
"I have a dream that is the dream of Jews for 2000 years," Nisson said: "that we will be able to settle all the Land in Israel: not just in Judea and Samaria, but everywhere in the Galilee and the Negev."