800 families from across Israel have signed up in just one month for settlement nuclei in the Negev and Galilee being promoted by the Religious Zionism party. The party is now preparing to divide the families into settlement groups and establish new settlement points as part of a plan led by party chairman Bezalel Smotrich to increase the Jewish presence in the Negev and Galilee.
2+424 families expressed a preference to live in the Galilee, 196 families want to move to the Negev, and another 180 families said they’re willing to live in either region. Party officials say this completes the first phase of the plan, which involved registering families interested in taking part in establishing the community nuclei.
The plan includes three main phases. The first phase—forming and registering families for the nuclei—has already been completed with the registration of the 800 families. In the second phase, registrants will be divided into settlement nuclei and the groups will be formed, while the third phase involves actually establishing the community locations, a process currently in the mapping and preparation stages.
The Goal: One Million More Jews in the Negev and Galilee
At the center of Smotrich’s plan is a goal to increase the Jewish population in the Negev and Galilee by one million residents. As part of this, the party plans to promote the establishment of 40 new communities and dozens of ranches, alongside significant expansion of existing communities and the creation of hundreds of thousands of housing solutions.
2+Religious Zionism wants to replicate in the Negev and Galilee the expansion policy it promoted in Judea and Samaria. At the same time, the party intends to work to cancel plans approved in recent years in Arab communities, claiming they take up extensive land reserves and harm development opportunities and Jewish presence in these areas.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich praised the families’ response and said: “I thank the 800 families who registered for Religious Zionism’s settlement nuclei in the Negev and Galilee. The situation in the Negev and Galilee must be addressed immediately, and therefore we are preparing to replicate the resettlement revolution we carried out in Judea and Samaria—in the Negev and Galilee. For this to happen, we must not gamble in the upcoming elections, and there needs to be a large and strong Religious Zionism.”
2+The Religious Zionism party views the completion of the registration phase as a first step toward implementing the plan. The formation of the nuclei and mapping for establishing the settlement points are now expected to continue, though actual establishment has not yet begun.