From Planting to Power: Birth of the Sovereignty Movement in Israel

In Part 1, Yehudit Katsover told the story of her family’s aliyah, her years in Dimona and Kiryat Arba, and the dramatic Beit Hadassah sit-in that reestablished Jewish presence in Hebron.

But something changed after the expulsion from Gush Katif in 2005.

She joined forces with Nadia Matar, and together they launched a new phase of activism. Not just land reclamation. The birth of the Sovereignty Movement,

This is their story.

The Turning Point

Between 2006 and 2011, Women in Green fought to reclaim Israeli state land—hill by hill, tree by tree. They worked with volunteers, studied maps, and exposed foreign-funded encroachment by Palestinian NGOs.

But in 2011, something snapped.

In the middle of yet another replanting effort—after Jewish saplings were uprooted again—Yehudit dropped her tools.

“Enough is enough,” she said.

We’re fighting billion-dollar organizations with a shovel and a flag.

That moment birthed the Sovereignty Movement.

Why Sovereignty?

From 1967 to 2011, only 3% of Judea and Samaria had been firmly reclaimed.

We won the war in 1967, but we lost the political battle.

Instead of applying Israeli law, the government established the Civil Administration, a military bureaucracy that left the land in limbo.

This vacuum gave rise to:

• The myth of a distinct “Palestinian people”

• The Oslo Accords

• Illegal construction in Area C funded by EU states and hostile NGOs

From Protest to Policy

Other activists spoke about sovereignty. But Yehudit and Nadia made it their core mission.

The 2005 disengagement had shown that settlement was not enough. In six days, Israel uprooted thousands of Jews and destroyed dozens of communities. Without sovereignty, Israel sends the message that its presence is temporary.

We knew the Left would never accept sovereignty so we started with the Right. Even they weren’t convinced at first. But we pushed. And we didn’t stop.

They were mocked. Laughed at. Dismissed as pests. But they persisted.

We’re mitnahalim—settlers. The word mitnahalim comes from nahala, which means ‘inheritance.’ We are the inheritors of this land.

The Real War: Maps, Not Guns

Katsover and Matar saw what others missed: the war was not just on the battlefield. It was being fought in courtrooms, in NGO offices, on topographic maps.

Everywhere we looked, there were signs in English and Arabic on buildings across Judea and Samaria: ‘Funded by the Netherlands.’ ‘A USAID Project.’ ‘Supported by the EU.’ All aiding the illegal Arab takeover of Israeli state land.

That is when they got serious.

They studied land law in depth. Learned how to read maps. Distinguished state land from private land. Survey land from trust land.

We never built on private Arab land. Always and only on state land. And we used their own maps to prove it.

They fought with facts and law. And they won. Again and again.

What October 7 Changed for the Sovereignty Movement

Until recently, the model was East Jerusalem-style residency for the Arabs: limited rights without citizenship.

But after October 7, that model is in doubt.

Most Arabs in Judea and Samaria didn’t condemn the massacre. Many supported it.

Katsover does not call for mass expulsion—but she calls for strategic clarity.

We need a new approach. We need to rethink the entire region. Syria has collapsed. The Kurds want a state. The colonial borders drawn by Sykes-Picot are obsolete. We need new alliances. New maps. A new coalition of nations that still know good from evil.

A detailed account of the Sovereignty Movement plan is found here.

What Comes Next?

The message is clear:

If we don’t extend sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, if we do not act decisively. we will face Gaza all over again.

But next time, she warned, it will not be 1,200 dead.

It could be 20,000.

This is an abbreviated version of the article that appeared in Substack: