Gush Etzion Doubles Its Number of Communities in Three Years Under Smotrich

A ceremony was held Wednesday night in the settlement of Gevaot, in Gush Etzion, to mark the formal land regularization of the community. The event drew hundreds of residents and was attended by Gush Etzion Regional Council head Yaron Rosental, Finance Minister and Defense Ministry ministerial official Bezalel Smotrich, and Yehuda Wald, director general of the Religious Zionism party.

At the ceremony, Smotrich said the state was celebrating the decision to establish the community, which he described as a future large city with strategic importance for Gush Etzion and for creating territorial continuity in the area. He also said the plan had received zoning approval for more than 800 housing units.

Smotrich met at the event with Hadas, the widow of Yossi Hershkovitz, the late head of Pelech High School, who was killed in the war. In his remarks, he said, “We are walking here in his path, and in the path of so many people who sacrificed their lives in the last two and a half years, so that we can live here in Gevaot, in Gush Etzion, in Kiryat Shmona, in Sderot and in the regions, and be here as a free people in our land.”

Rosental praised Smotrich for what he called the central contribution to the transformation, saying many people had not believed new communities could be established. He said that during the current government, Gush Etzion doubled the number of settlements in the area, from 14 to 28, over the past three years.