"גדיים הופכים לתיישים": ‏ה‏תגבשות ההחלטה הממשלתית על הקמת "היאחזות אזרחית" בכפר עציון בקיץ 1967

Kefar Etzion, a kibbutz that the Arab Legion destroyed in the War of Independence,was resettled in late September 1967 and became the first Israeli settlement to be established in the West Bank after the Six-Day War. Using the minutes of relevant meetings that were recently made public, I analyze discussions of the Israeli Government and the Ministerial Committee for Security Affairs that took place in the summer of 1967 and ultimately led to the establishment of this “civilian Nahal settlement,” being a corps of the IDF. Beyond the factual outline of the discussions, presented in full for the first time, I make two main claims: the decision to resettle Kefar Etzion was made possible by the creation of a coalition of several centers of power in the Israeli Government and the Ministerial Committee for Defense Affairs,which ultimately influenced, after much deliberation, the decision of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to go ahead; and the concept of a “civilian Nahal settlement,” via which Kefar Etzion was reestablished, had not existed until that time.