Israel reopens once-closed West Bank settlement

Israel officially reopened the West Bank settlement of Ganim on Thursday, more than 20 years after it withdrew from the community, in a move emblematic of the current government's policy of rapid settlement expansion.

Ganim is one of four Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that Israel evacuated under former prime minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan in 2005. Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, settlement construction and expansion have soared, including with the official re-establishment of three of the four evacuated communities -- Ganim, Sa-Nur and Homesh.

About a hundred people from Israel and other West Bank settlements attended the ceremony, including Katz and Yossi Dagan, head of the Israeli authority in charge of settlements in the northern West Bank.