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Ministers visit newly recognized Samaria town of Evyatar

Israel needs to “establish more 'Evyatars' in Samaria, the Galilee, and the Negev,” Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf told residents.

Jews pray at the newly recognized community of Evyatar in Samaria, July 7, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.
Jews pray at the newly recognized community of Evyatar in Samaria, July 7, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.

Israel’s Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf and Minister of Settlements and National Missions Orit Strock visited the newly recognized town of Evyatar in central Samaria on Thursday.

Israel needs to “establish more ‘Evyatars’ in Samaria, the Galilee, and the Negev,” Goldknopf told residents.

The legal status of Evyatar, the 37th town under the jurisdiction of the Samaria Regional Council, was regularized a month ago. The town, established in memory of Evyatar Borovsky and Yehuda Guetta, whom Palestinians terrorists murdered in separate attacks at the Tapuach Junction, is located south of Nablus and a mile east of the junction.

During a visit to the yeshiva located in the community, Goldknopf told students and residents: “For many years, we were told that settlements and outposts were the obstacle to peace, and settlers were slandered. I think that today, after the terrible massacre on October 7, no citizen in Israel thinks that our enemies are bothered by settlements or outposts.

“They are cruel, barbaric, rioters and bloodthirsty. Our response must be to settle as much of the Land of Israel as possible and to be grateful to everyone who comes to strengthen the settlement [enterprise], live in it, and settle it.”

Goldknopf continued: “I call on the government to build settlements here, in the Galilee, in the Negev, in the north and south, and especially here in Judea and Samaria, so there will be more ‘Evyatars.’ The students here are full of grace, the divine presence is on their faces; without the Torah this community would not exist.”

Strock also spoke to the crowd. “Evyatar is one of the settlements that expresses more than any other the spirit of victory and love for the land. A settlement established in a place from which our enemies tried to uproot us through terrorist attacks, and we rose and said:

“Right here, we will deepen our roots, right here, we will build and be built. From here we are not running away, but holding on. Because this is our land, it is ours, and for it we fight.”

Samaria Council head Yossi Dagan, who was also in attendance, said, “I want to thank Housing Minister Rabbi Goldknopf, who was the first to include the regularization of Evyatar in the coalition agreement. I see how excited he is about all the construction here.

“We also thank Minister Orit Strock for all the work and mobilization. … Evyatar is a new settlement that gives strength to the IDF to win in Gaza; more new ‘Evyatars’ will give strength to the government to defeat Iran, to defeat Lebanon.”

Dagan called on the government to reopen towns in Gush Katif and resettle Gaza with a Jewish population.

“We call on the Israeli government to establish more new ‘Evyatars’ in Samaria, in the ‘Gaza Envelope’ [near the Strip], in the north, and also in Gush Katif. Through returning to our Jewish Land of Israel, the people of Israel will be victorious,” he said.

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