Israeli left-wing youth group plans kibbutz-style settlement in West Bank

The Aravot Hayarden area in which the Hamahanot Haolim movement is planning to establish a settlement

Yair Foldes reports in Haaretz on 26 August 26 2026:

A left-wing youth movement has been seeking in recent months to establish a new settlement in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley, aiming to populate the area with a left-wing presence, instead of far-right settlers who are often involved in violence against Palestinians.

The Hamahanot Haolim movement says it has been exploring the idea with the Aravot Hayarden Regional Council in recent months, and the possibility of implementing it looks “positive.” No exact spot for the planned settlement has yet been chosen, but the organization is looking at the area around Kibbutz Beit Ha’arava, north of the Dead Sea.

Organization director Ilan Gazit confirmed the group is leaning toward establishing a kibbutz-style settlement in the Jordan Valley, which would mostly focus on agricultural activities.

Gazit said he is aware of the damage West Bank settlements do to Palestinian rights, but argued that since new settlements will be built in the Jordan Valley in any case, it’s preferable to have as many of them as possible populated by leftists.

“I very much hope there will be more kibbutzim and moshavim here and fewer farms,” he said, referring to the farming outposts established by far-right settlers that have often been sources of violence against nearby Palestinian communities.

Since October 7, 2023, he continued, “more than 30 farms have been established in the Jordan Valley, and that threatens the Palestinians’ daily lives, the ability to view the Jordan Valley as an agricultural security zone and the possibility of someday achieving peace.”

“The Israeli left needs to be in the Jordan Valley; otherwise, other people will be there,” he added. “And the story of the farms is the clearest example of this.”  “We aren’t ashamed of this and we aren’t hiding it,” he said. “This is in line with our worldview: A strong security border is needed in the east that will be defensible and create a necessary condition for peace.”

“We are leftists who believe in equality between people and are guided by a humanistic, socialist, democratic worldview,” he added.

Hamahanot Haolim turned 100 this year. It defines itself as a “pioneering, socialist Zionist youth group” and conducts activities for teens in dozens of places around the country. It also organizes programs in which teens spend a year in some form of community service between high school and the army as well as organizing groups of graduates to form new communities.

Over the years, its graduates have established 41 kibbutzim, including Beit Hashita, Maoz Haim and Sdot Yam. One of those kibbutzim, Na’aran, is located in the West Bank, north of Jericho. Founded in 1977 by a different left-wing youth group, it suffered many crises over the years that led many of its members to leave. But it was repopulated in 1999, in part by graduates of Hamahanot Ha’olim, and now has some 200 residents, including Gazit.

Settling the Jordan Valley wasn’t ideologically foreign to pioneering left-wing youth groups after the Six-Day War of 1967. This was in part due to the Allon plan, drafted by former Labor Party minister Yigal Allon, which called for Israel to retain the West Bank’s mountain ridge, the Jordan Valley and the area around Jerusalem under any future peace agreement. To this day, several kibbutzim in the Jordan Valley belong to the United Kibbutz Movement, which is affiliated with the left.

The Jordan Valley’s Palestinian population is comparatively sparse, but because the area has little arable land, the settlements there nevertheless pose a threat to the Palestinians’ daily lives.

According to Dror Etkes of the left-wing Kerem Navot organization, the part of the Jordan Valley that was transferred to the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords, some 71,000 dunams, now contains 60,000 to 70,000 Palestinian residents, whereas the Israeli settlements, with around 12,000 settlers, control roughly 1.5 million dunams.

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