From disengagement to annexation
Settler leader Yossi Dagan’s mission is to prevent evacuations, ensure sovereignty
As a young man, Yossi Dagan was among those who made one of the last stands against Israel’s destruction of 25 settlements in August 2005.
Fifteen years later as the head of the Samaria Regional Council, engaged in a land battle against two powerful men – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump – he knows firsthand what it means to stand firm and push back at a moment when it seems that all the odds are stacked against him.
When it comes to the importance of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, all the lessons Dagan ever needed he learned in August 2005 in the small hilltop community of Sa-Nur in northern Samaria, which has lain in ruins for 15 years.
Dagan spoke with The Jerusalem Post this week as he sat in his office in the Barkan Industrial Park, with the sun streaming through the window onto his desk. In the entryway of the small one-story building hangs a poster of the four northern Samaria communities demolished during the 2005 Disengagement, with the words, “We will never forget or forgive.”
On his wrist, Dagan wore, as he always does, an orange plastic band, which once symbolized opposition to the Samaria demolitions and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which included the destruction of 21 communities there.
But he doesn’t need the physical reminder; the experience itself is burned into his heart. “I remember this injustice. I have dedicated my life to ensuring that this never happens again,” Dagan said.
With his easy smile, shortsleeve white button-down shirt and jeans, he has a relaxed manner until the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict arises. Then as the talk turns to Israeli sovereignty and Palestinian statehood, he is engulfed in passion.
Israel’s pending plan to annex portions of the West Bank, according to the dictates of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, have split the settler leaders. Close to half of them fall within a group that has argued that Israel should accept the plan as it is and work to make changes after. Then there are those like Dagan, who hold that any changes, particularly with regard to the territorial sovereignty map, should be done now.
He has in the last weeks embarked on a campaign, simultaneous to the one led by Yesha Council head David Elhayani, to set redlines for the Trump proposal. He holds up his fingers to count the three objections, “no” to a Palestinian state, “no” to a building freeze, “no” to settlement enclaves. His critics have cast him as an oppositional force, whose campaign and the furor it has caused, could sway either Netanyahu or Trump, or both, to back away from the sovereignty plan.
Dagan rejects all such charges, noting in particular he is a faithful and strong supporter of both Netanyahu and Trump. Dagan is proud to have been one of the first Israeli politicians to have publicly endorsed Trump for president, long before the New York businessman’s victory was assured.
During the course of the interview he shied away from any conversation with regard to internal politics among the settler leaders. Where others saw conflict, he preferred to see agreement on matters of principle, and then nuanced disagreements with regard to the best strategy of how to move forward.
To underscore his point, that his views are in consensus, Dagan’s office commissioned a poll of 511 Jewish Israelis, conducted by Maagar Mochot, which showed that 68% favored sovereignty, 72% opposed placing settlements in enclaves and 67% opposed the creation of a Palestinian state.
With respect to Trump and US Ambassador David Friedman, Dagan spoke of both men as “great American patriots” who have only Israel’s interests first and foremost in their minds. “I don’t think this. I know this.”
The Trump plan reverses two very important elements that had previously existed in past diplomatic initiatives around the conflict, he said. It no longer puts the onus on Israel for the success or failure of the initiative, he said. It also clarifies that the Palestinians are not “the key” that opens Israel up to normalizing ties with the Arab world.
He lauded the US president stating that “Trump is a great friend for Israel,” but he noted, those who are friends are the ones who should most understand that Israel has to act according to its best interests.
For the map attached to Trump’s peace plan to be in Israel’s best interest, he said, it must take into account the reality on the ground.
“This is a historic moment” and within that moment “it is important to strengthen Netanyahu and Trump,” he said. The best way to do so is to ensure that the map provides Israel with the best options for sovereignty. He can not understand how there can be objections to his work to ensure that the sovereignty map “strengthens Israel and does not endanger it.” Anything else would only endanger the long sought-after sovereignty, he said.
He clarified, however, that he believed that the “key” to sovereignty was “in Jerusalem” and “most certainly not in Washington.”
DAGAN SAID he believed the US would support the best sovereignty option for Israel. But if Netanyahu failed to secure US support for changes to the map, then Netanyahu should follow the examples set by former prime ministers Menachem Begin and Levi Eshkol, and apply sovereignty independently.
“We are not the citizens of the US, we are citizens of Israel,” he said. Even US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that the issue of sovereignty is an Israeli decision, he said.
Not everything would be finalized now, he said. But when it comes to the map, those details can’t include factors that would lead to a building freeze, destructions of settlements or the creation of a Palestinian state. “There are points here, that simply endanger Israel,” he said. “We have to wait to see the final map, But we have set the redlines.”
Those who are fighting for sovereignty in Judea and Samaria are for the most part not new to the battle. They have gone through numerous US and Israeli initiatives, including the Oslo Accords and the Disengagement.
“We have seen that when you withdraw from settlements, missiles follow,” said Dagan. His words were in reference to the Hamas takeover of Gaza after the Israeli withdrawal and the thousands of rockets it has since launched against southern Israel.
Dagan was first drawn to activism as a young teen who loved to read about Israel’s history. As such he followed the unveiling of the US-led 1993 Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian Authority and set up the structure for a two-state res
the structure for a two-state resolution to the conflict.
“When Oslo began I was hurt and angry about it,” said Dagan. As a seventh and eighth grader, he was among those who stood at the street corners and protested. He also became an activist against the 2005 Disengagement and was among those who handed out maps and explained how rockets would rain on Israel once it left Gaza. “No one listened, no one was interested.”
It was not just a political argument. Because at the time, he was living in Sa-Nur with his wife, Oria, having moved there in 2001 to strengthen the community.
On the day of the evacuation he stood with dozens of activists who braved police
water cannons and were forcibly dragged out of a two-story stone building by Border Police after a 12-hour standoff with Israeli security forces. The building is the only structure that has remained on the ruins of the Sa-Nur settlement.
Activists like Dagan were pushed onto a bus and driven off the site. Dagan has never forgotten the trauma of that moment and the one that came after as he caught a final glimpse of his receding home out of the bus window.
He still recalled how nearby Palestinians cheered, danced and sang, waving both Palestinian and Hezbollah flags.
Until then he had not thought of politics or of becoming the head of the Samaria Council. “My love is history, I wanted to be a history professor. After the evacuation, I understood what my mission was: to prevent an additional evacuation that
endangers the state and Israel society and to bring one million residents to the Shomron,” he said, referring to Samaria by its Hebrew name.
To that end he worked within the Likud to cement its connection to the settlements, creating a group that strengths politicians dedicated to supporting the Land of Israel. Dagan also cast his eyes on the US, investing in ties with Democratic and Republican politicians, including those who made up Trump’s base, long before Trump actually reached the White House. It was clear to him that the US would swing to the right in the aftermath of president Barak Obama’s tenure, and he wanted to be prepared.
“The enemy of the settlements is ignorance, first and foremost,” so the council focuses on outreach work to Israeli and international tourists, as wells as dignitaries from all over
the world, including Evangelicals. He has also created ties with pro-European politicians and formed a caucus group called Friends of Judea and Samaria in the European Parliament.
He has held meetings in EU buildings and on Capitol Hill. He secured an invitation to Trump’s inauguration, has been in the White House and was one of the four setter leaders who met with Netanyahu at Blair House when Trump’s peace plan was unveiled in January.
When it comes to advancing an agenda, he is of the belief that the most powerful way forward is to combine knowledge, the media and political connections.
He was among those who was surprised by Netanyahu’s decision not to apply sovereignty immediately after his return from Washington and holds
that he has no choice but to do so in the near future.
Failure to do so, he warned, would lead to the collapse of the National-Religious camp.
“Netanyahu and Trump’s voters expect sovereignty,” he said.
Dagan has no plans to run for the Knesset. His mission begins and ends in Samaria.
“It’s the reason I wake up in the morning. It is what repairs the wounds in my heart from the evacuation,” he said. “I am fulfilled when I see more homes, the road, the schools, the communities. This is what heals the wound in my heart.”
He has no plans to rest, even after sovereignty, out of the belief that the only safety from evacuations is in numbers, particularly a million residents in Samaria.
He smiled and said, “Then I can go and study history, the history of Israel.” •