Yakir

Yakir is located in northern Judea and Samaria, in the region historically known as Samaria or Shomron.[1][2] It lies near the Palestinian village of Jinsafut and the settlement of Nofim, all visible from the hills near Karnei Shomron.[2] The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics assigns Yakir the locality code 3647.[3]

Administratively, Yakir falls under the Shomron Regional Council.[1] Its settlement movement affiliation is recorded as Amana.[1] Michael Herzog's territorial analysis groups Yakir within the "North of Ariel" settlement cluster, alongside other communities founded from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s.[4]

The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics records 1981 as Yakir's year of Jewish settlement, a date consistent with most communities in the North of Ariel bloc, which were established from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s.[3][4] Encyclopedia.com similarly records its founding as 1981.[1]

A UN report records that on November 10, 1985, an Israeli bus travelling from Jerusalem to the nearby settlement of Emanuel was fired upon near Yakir. A 61-year-old man was injured by flying glass, six windows were shattered, and the village of Bani-Hassan was placed under curfew while searches were carried out.[5]

The same report, citing the Palestinian newspaper Al-Fajr, recounts that on August 4, 1986, a military court in Ramallah cancelled a confiscation order concerning a 168-dunam plot south of Tulkarem that military authorities had intended to annex to Yakir. The report says the land was to be returned to the three families recorded as its owners — Jaber, Moqbel, and Rayyan.[5] Yakir also appeared on a UN map titled "Map showing Israeli settlements established, planned or under construction in the territories occupied since 1967," dated October 1986 and identified as Map No. 3070 Rev. 8.[5]

By 1997, a UN report listed Yakir among settlements in the Nablus area, recording 50 planned housing units under one plan entry and 30 units under a separate master plan numbered 118; the relationship between the two listings was not specified in the cited passage.[6]

A terrorist attack in 2006 claimed the life of Yakir resident Dr. Danny Ya'akobi, who was abducted and murdered on July 27 after apparently travelling to a garage in the village of Funduq — on the road leading to Kedumim — to have his car serviced.[7] Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility.[7]

A 2016 report documented eight French Jewish immigrant families who had arrived in Yakir approximately two years earlier, among them David Tzuriya, who relocated from Paris and continued managing his real-estate business while living in a narrow trailer in the community.[8]

Yakir's population has grown markedly over the decades. The Jewish Virtual Library records 765 residents in 1999, rising to 1,207 in 2009, 2,449 in 2020, 2,542 in 2021, 2,664 in 2022, 2,905 in 2023, 2,939 in 2024, and 2,965 in 2025.[9] The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics' 2019 locality list recorded a population of 2,742 as of December 31 of that year.[3] An earlier figure of 960 residents was recorded for December 31, 2004, by Encyclopedia.com.[1]

A settlement-bloc table in Herzog's analysis lists Yakir at 1,129, but the report says only that its population figures were mostly based on 2009 data and does not specify the year of Yakir's entry.[4] The Jewish Virtual Library separately lists 1,207 residents in 2009.[9] Its population series indicates that Yakir nearly quadrupled in size between 1999 and 2025.[9]

Yakir supports a range of community enterprises. In 2020, residents Dasi and Ze'avi Gross were reported to have lived in the community for nearly 30 years, operating a first-aid-kit and medical-supplies business that supplied schools, bus companies, water parks, and cultural institutions.[10] A lease dispute with the community secretariat subsequently led to an arbitration ruling requiring them to pay a significantly higher rent, followed by a court-ordered eviction notice. The secretariat stated that it had attempted to support local commerce and that the couple had rejected its proposals.[10]

In 2017, Yakir hosted a summer camp that drew attention when dozens of fourth- and fifth-grade boys participated in an "army day" featuring training with M16 rifles from which the firing mechanisms had been removed.[11] The camp director stated that the activity had been approved by the community's security personnel, and the Shomron Regional Council described it as one of ten stations in a broader "army and community day" conducted in cooperation with the IDF.[11] The same report said girls participated separately in hairdressing, manicuring, and styling workshops.[11]

Yakir has been the subject of several significant housing-development plans in recent years. In July 2024, N12 reported plans for a new neighborhood across the road from the existing community, structured around a military base, as part of a broader agenda for advancing 6,016 housing units across Judea and Samaria.[12]

On March 6, 2025, 464 housing units in Yakir were advanced at a meeting of the Higher Planning Council, within a broader acceleration of settlement housing plans during early 2025.[13][14] If ultimately built, the plan would add hundreds of homes to the community.

The general legal status of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including Yakir, remains disputed. Herzog's report describes Israel's official position as treating the territory as disputed rather than occupied, while noting that most of the international community considers it occupied.[4] My Jewish Learning likewise states that most of the world views the settlements as contravening the Fourth Geneva Convention and that Israel rejects the classification of the territory as legally occupied.[15]

The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli Foreign Ministry asserted that West Bank settlements are legal under Israeli and international law; it also reported that the International Court of Justice's 2024 advisory opinion found Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank contrary to international law.[16] No source in the available material identifies a Yakir-specific court ruling. Peace Now has publicly criticized expansion plans in Yakir and similar communities as undermining a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[12]