A new settler movement called the Home Forum has emerged in recent weeks with an ambitious goal far beyond expanding existing outposts or building a new farm, it wants to formally bring down the Oslo Accords and begin Jewish construction in Areas A and B, territories under Palestinian control. The group is led by two bereaved fathers from Samaria, Eliav Libi, a founder of the farm movement in Judea and Samaria whose son David was killed in fighting in Gaza, and Yehoshua Sherman, whose son Yehuda was killed in a bombing attack in Samaria.
The forum is running a political campaign from the ground up. Its leaders have hired top public relations, branding and marketing firms, and in recent weeks have been visiting the Knesset, meeting ministers, and inviting decision-makers and journalists to tours of Shuva Israel farm in Samaria. Their central pressure is aimed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom they want to declare the Oslo Accords void before the current government finishes its term.
Several senior politicians have already signed the forum’s letter calling for the accords to be canceled, including Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Shikli, Culture Minister Miki Zohar, and Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, who knows the issue well from his time as head of the Shin Bet. Ministers Bezalel Smotrich, Miki Zohar, and Amichai Shikli have visited the site, along with MKs Simcha Rothman, Ohad Tal, Avichai Buaron, and Tzvi Sukkot. Minister Orit Struk has met the group several times, and other lawmakers, including Minister Silman and MK Kalner, have expressed support.
Smotrich, who said last week that he had canceled the Hebron Agreement, is portrayed as a key player in the effort. The finance minister, a strong supporter of the campaign, has been pressing the relevant power centers to advance settlement expansion, has met the forum’s leaders several times, visited the farm, heard their demands, and promised to act with the prime minister as well.
One of the forum’s notable gains has been drawing in families from the Gaza border area, who experienced the October 7 atrocities firsthand. At a recent tour of the Samaria farm, Sigal Kraunick, widow of Eric Kraunick, the security coordinator of Kibbutz Be’eri who was murdered on the morning of the massacre, voiced full support. She said, “The struggle you are waging is very important. I saw with my own eyes how Gaza Arabs kept approaching the kibbutz fences, and it is a shame they were not evacuated before the massacre. Now, to prevent another massacre in Judea and Samaria, my recommendation is to evacuate the Arabs from there.”
