NABLUS – Ahead of the announcement of his latest government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played the "northern settlements" as a card to pressure and win to form his most extreme right-wing government.

In 2005, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as part of his efforts to revive the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, announced a unilateral plan to evacuate four settlements: Homesh, Ganim, Kadim, Tarslah, the Israeli army's Dotan-Araba camp in the northern West Bank, and four other settlements in the Gaza Strip.

As soon as it was formed, Netanyahu's government legalized nine outposts and approved a draft resolution to repeal the "disengagement law" and return to the settlements in the north.

In the first reading 10 days ago, the Israeli Knesset voted on it, and then it came back and ratified it in the second and third readings, and the legislation became effective and the return was in place.

But these settlements have been evacuated and settlers have been storming them for 18 years, even preventing Palestinians and landowners, especially in Homesh, from rebuilding or returning to them.

The presence of settlers in these settlements - according to the new decision - is no longer contrary to Israeli law, but this return - according to specialists in Israeli affairs - is subject to military approval, as any decision issued by the Knesset needs military approval from the commander of the region to implement it, and this requires that the area be safe. Thus, any efforts by the Palestinians, legally or popularly, could thwart the decision and the measures of the occupation.

The occupation army set up a military post in front of Homesh settlement to prevent Palestinians from entering it while allowing settlers to enter (Al-Jazeera)

Homesh Settlement

Homesh is classified as the most important and largest of the four settlements, and was established in 1978 on land belonging to the village of Burqa north of Nablus and another belonging to the neighboring town of Silat al-Dhahr, in the middle of the cities of Jenin and Nablus and overlooking the main road connecting the two cities.

Homesh controlled more than one thousand dunums (dunam = one thousand square meters) of the lands of the "Al-Duhur-Qubaybat" area of Cyrenaica, while its area of influence extended to about 4,<> other dunums of citizens' land, and a small part is classified as state land (belonging to the treasury of the Kingdom of Jordan).

In 1976, the settlement rang its stakes in Cyrenaica, targeting the Masoudiya area, and this was led by the Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin at the time, so the people of the area revolted against that, so the settlement was evacuated, and after two years it was built again, but under the name "Homesh" in Jabal Al-Duhur, north of the village, and it began as a camp for the occupation army and then turned into a settlement.

In the early nineties of the last century, Benjamin Netanyahu visited "Homesh" and said in a speech to him, "a beautiful area that you never leave," from which he sees two-thirds of Palestine, and contains more than 100 apartments, and it has a service council, a synagogue and a "café" (a place for sale according to Jewish teachings).

However, Homesh was mainly used as a tourist settlement, with sports fields, swimming pools, a club, sports fields, as well as parks and kindergartens.

In 2005, the settlers evacuated Homesh under a government decision and with a huge military force, but they did not leave it for a while, when the Palestinians reclaimed their land, then the settlers returned, destroyed agricultural facilities, uprooted trees and assaulted citizens.

Although the Israeli Supreme Court allowed in more than one decision the return of Palestinians to their lands and prohibited the entry of Israeli (soldier, civilian, settler) to it, the settlers did not accept this and continued to storm it, and the occupation army declared the place a closed military zone.

The settlers used Operation Homesh, in which an Israeli settler was killed in late December 2021 by Palestinian militants, as a pretext for their return to the settlement, and for establishing a religious school there until now.

From the response of the people of Cyrenaica in 2022 to the occupation army against the background of the events of Homesh and the killing of a settler (Al-Jazeera)

Gdeim Settlement

"Kadim" or "Kadim" as you know, derived its name from the neighboring Palestinian village of "Beit Qad", and the settlement is in the middle of the city of Jenin, the town of Qabatiya in the south, and other surrounding villages, and was established in 1981 on Basin No. (1) of the "Khirbet Ghannam" area of lands classified as "state treasury and forests" with an area of more than 160 dunums, and others that are private properties in Qabatiya, and then extended to control about 400 dunums, which is in the opposite direction of the settlement of "Janim", and one kilometer from it, which was also evacuated with it.

Although "Kadim" has a smaller built-up area (80 housing units) and a small number of settlers, estimated at a few dozen, it contained playgrounds and a service council, and at the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 - like many settlements - it turned into a military base for the Israeli army and a training station, and for this purpose the occupation uprooted large areas of trees surrounding the settlement, and the area of confiscated land was estimated at 2100 dunums.

Ganim Settlement (Ghoneim)

"Janim", which derives its name from Jenin in 1983, was built on the lands of a number of villages east of Jenin, including Deir Abu Daif, um al-Tut, Aaba, Khirbet Sabaeen and the Arab al-Suwaytat area, on land classified as a "state treasury" on an area of 185 dunums directly, and later confiscated 1863 dunums of citizens' land in the aforementioned villages.

Ganim was gradually expanding its structural area, especially on the lands of the eastern village of Aba adjacent to the settlement, and then the nature reserve and the ruins of the village of um al-Tut, and although its population did not exceed 100 settlers, their numbers declined before the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, and the settlement, which was classified as civilian, contained a chemical factory.

Both Ganim and Kadim are known as secular settlements, which were initiated by the so-called Israeli "National Worker" organization with the aim of establishing a series of settlements and linking them together.

Despite the evacuation, the Israeli army continued its incursions and military exercises, preventing Palestinian access to them or making changes to them.

The settlement of "Tarslah" shows a mosque built by Jordanians while they are on the site (Al-Jazeera)

Settlement you send him or "Sanur"

On the same main road between Nablus and Jenin and near the villages of Jaba', Al-Hostumiya and 'Ajja, a settlement was established that Tarslah, or "Sanur", as the occupation called it, because of its proximity to the neighboring town of Sanur.

Tarsala, or "Shield of God," is an ancient Canaanite name meaning strength and immunity, and is a military protectorate built by the Muslim leader Saladin to repel the Crusaders led by Richard the Lionheart when they were on their way to Jerusalem in 1187.

It was built on a strategically located hill estimated at 77 dunums of land in the village of Al-Hadithiya, and the British (at the time of the Mandate) established a camp for their forces known as the "Muqata'a" and a detention center on it in 1945.

The site witnessed battles between the Palestinian rebels and the British between 1936 and 1939, and after the withdrawal of the British, the Jordanian army established a camp and built a mosque whose monuments are still standing today.

During the June 1967 war, part of his mission was destroyed, then the occupation took control of it and used it as a camp for his army and training, until he brought religious settlers to it in 1978 and turned it into a residential settlement, and turned the mosque into a synagogue.

In the eighties of the last century, most of the settlers were evacuated from Tarsala and turned into an art and tourist center, but years later the settlers returned and built new outposts.

Part of Camp Dotan Arraba (Island)

Camp Dotan - Arraba

After the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the Israeli occupation took control of the site of the "Dotan" camp at the entrance to the town of Araba, south of Jenin, with an area estimated at 22 dunums of the town's land, while its areas of security influence extend to thousands of dunums, and are distributed between private property and lands belonging to the "Jordanian state treasury".

"Dotan" is an ancient Canaanite name, and in the area there is an archaeological site said to belong to the prophet Jacob, and before the Israeli occupation it was used as a military site for the Jordanian army, whose buildings are still standing today.