A major push to expand the Israeli community in Judea and Samaria was unveiled today on Channel 14: Following a December 2025 political-security cabinet decision, Israel completed dramatic steps today to legalize and expand towns in Judea and Samaria, ending a years-long process.
At the center of the moves, authorities declared 285 acres of new state land for the expansion of Karmei Oz (Givat Harel) in the Binyamin Regional Council. The move will enable a dramatic expansion of the Israeli community, with the first master plan for over 600 housing units already underway.
Alongside this, the Interior Ministry granted official community status to Karmei Oz and to the town of Sahlav in Samaria, thereby formally recognizing them as legal communities. These symbols join 37 community designations granted recently—39 total in about half a year. In Sahlav, which was declared a new community by the political-security cabinet in December 2025, a new city is planned on approximately 4,500 dunams. The move was completed after staff work by the Civil Administration and the Defense Ministry, and after Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth signed off on the communities’ jurisdictional boundaries.
Finance Minister and Defense Minister Bezalel Smotrich praised the move: “Karmei Oz stood heroically for about 30 years waiting for the moment when the government of Israel would advance its legalization. Thank God we are privileged to complete the work. Facing the Eisenkot-Lieberman-Golan government that is planning to uproot communities and establish a ‘Palestinian’ state—we are declaring, planting and building throughout our land.” Binyamin Regional Council head and Yesha Council chairman Israel Gantz added that declaring the state lands at Givat Harel and completing the town’s legalization does historic justice to the heroic residents: “This is a clear and sharp message to our enemies: We will continue to hold onto this land, continue to develop and build it, and continue to establish thriving communities on it.”