Hundreds Mark Return to Homesh, Declaring Disengagement Dead

Hundreds of Israelis gathered in the renewed settlement of Homesh in the northern West Bank on Wednesday for a celebration marking 21 years since the disengagement. The event featured the inauguration of a synagogue named after Rabbi Kook and the bringing of a Torah scroll, alongside a central rally and a performance by artist Beni Landau.

Notable attendees included Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council; Deputy Knesset Speaker Limor Son Har Melech; rabbis; Homesh residents; families who returned to the northern West Bank; activists from "Homesh First"; alumni and rabbis from the Homesh yeshiva; and bereaved families. Among them were the parents of Yehuda Dimantman, Shuli Har Melech, and Idudo Zoldan, all victims of terror attacks. A canopy prepared from the tallit of Yitzhak Zeiger, a resident murdered in 2024, was unfurled over the Torah scroll during its procession.

Dagan declared in his speech, "We are in days of historical rectification. We stand here in the renewed Homesh, in a place that did not exist before the disengagement, and say to the whole world: The disengagement from northern Samaria is dead, the people of Israel live!" He stated that the movement initiated in Homesh would continue to other northern West Bank settlements and eventually to Gush Katif.

MK Limor Son Har Melech, herself a former resident of Homesh, said, "Today, as we stand here in Homesh, we can clearly say: The people of Israel have returned home." She attributed the return to years of struggle, faith, and perseverance by families, activists, and the Homesh yeshiva.

Ministers Orit Strock and Ze'ev Elkin sent video messages. Elkin called the return to Homesh and northern Samaria a "national answer," adding, "There will be no more disengagement, only a plan of connection."