Hundreds of right-wing activists, including MKs, join prayer service at illegal West Bank outpost Evyatar
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Hundreds of settlers and right-wing activists participate in a celebratory prayer service at the illegal West Bank outpost of Evyatar in honor of a cabinet decision just over a week ago to legalize the site, along with four other outposts.
The service, accompanied by a band and much raucous dancing, kicked off at 5 a.m., attended by MKs Tzvi Succot and Moshe Solomon of the far-right Religious Zionism party, head of the Shomron Regional Council Yossi Dagan, and Chief Rabbi of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu.
“A week ago [US President Joe] Biden said that Evyatar was a red line and that it should not be legalized under any circumstances,” says Eliyahu after the service, in reference to reports of opposition by the US administration to the legalization of the five outposts.
“But it looks like there was someone above this giant… This victory teaches us that it is not because of a government decision that the legalization of five settlements was decided; it is [because of] God’s counsel.”
Dagan said that Evyatar, which has been established and evacuated on several occasions, was not just a settlement but “an idea in which we break the wall that prohibits us from establishing new settlements in Judea and Samaria and the Land of Israel.”
Said Dagan, “We are standing here and saying to the government of Israel and to the entire world that there will be many, many more Evyatars in Samaria.”
Evyatar was most recently repopulated in June 2023 following a terror attack outside the nearby settlement of Eli, and the government tacitly consented not to evacuate the outpost ever since, until a cabinet decision at the end of June retroactively approved its establishment.
Evyatar and the other four outposts legalized in the same decision will need retroactive approval from the Civil Administration for the construction of residential buildings at the sites before they can be formally considered to be legal, although it is highly unlikely to be rejected.