Uri Tzafon
Israeli campaign, founded in 2024, for the annexation and Jewish settlement of southern Lebanon
| Uri Tzafon
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Settlement campaign |
| Founded | March 2024 |
| Location | Israel |
| Key people | Anna Sloutskin, Yaakov Socol, Amos Azaria |
Uri Tzafon (עורי צפון, "Awake, O North", also translated "Awaken the North") is an Israeli settlement campaign, set up in March 2024, which calls for the annexation and settlement of Lebanon south of the Litani River, and more recently south of the Zahrani. It publishes maps of Lebanese towns under Hebrew names and has advertised plots it does not own, from about 300,000 shekels, as "future settlements". The slogan on the maps is "head north".[1][2] In August 2026 the army detained 17 of its activists who had crossed into Lebanon.[3]
The people
The three co-founders named in accounts of the movement are Anna Sloutskin (also spelled Slutskin), a biologist, Yaakov Socol, and Amos Azaria, a university professor. Sloutskin and Socol are siblings of Yisrael Socol (also given as Israel Sokol), a Givati Brigade soldier whose death is described as the inspiration. A WhatsApp forum reached about 3,000 members in a month. Roya News reported talk on it of kayaking trips in southern Lebanon, Hebrew names for Lebanese cities, and complaints that Israeli policy in the north was docile, and that some members describe a Greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates. The campaign's own published aim is to settle south of the Litani and to "Judaize" it.[2]
Stated aims
Sloutskin told AFP in May 2026: "The idea is that most of the population flees, we move the border, and we do not let that population return, and it remains a part of the State of Israel by declaration." Another member, Ori Plasse, told AFP that he and others had driven into Lebanon through an open border gate to set up a tent and plant trees: "You feel like you're home, you feel it's your country." AFP reported that the government had given "no public political support" to the movement, though Sloutskin said there was backing from lawmakers and ministers.[4]
The claimed outpost, December 2024
On 7 December 2024 the movement said families had crossed into southern Lebanon, set up tents, planted trees and made a memorial corner for Yehudah Dror Yahalom, a soldier from a West Bank settlement killed in combat in southern Lebanon that October. It placed the act at Maroun al-Ras, a Shia village less than a mile from the border, in ground then held by the Israeli army under the ceasefire. The military spokesman said the activists never crossed, that the encampment was inside "Israel" near a border community, and that soldiers dispersed them because the area was a closed military zone. Nachala used the same moment to call for settlement in Lebanon, Gaza and the Syrian Golan, and said the land "must not be abandoned to foreigners". The Times of Israel noted then that no minister had called for settlement in Lebanon, while Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir had called for it in Gaza and Benjamin Netanyahu had denied an intention to resettle Gaza.[5]
Border crossings, 2026
AFP reported that the movement organised a tree-planting trip to the border in February 2026, during which the army said two civilians crossed the fence.[4] On 5 August 2026 the army detained 17 activists who had crossed into Lebanon.[3]
Ministers and Lebanon, 2026
By 2026 senior ministers had taken up parts of the campaign's demand. In March Bezalel Smotrich said "the new Israeli border must be the Litani".[6] In May Itamar Ben-Gvir spoke of a "settlement plan for Lebanon".[7] Uri Tzafon published a photo of Sloutskin meeting the environmental protection minister, Idit Silman, captioned: "During the meeting with the minister, the issue of taking the territory was raised."[4] See Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon (2024–present).
The maps
The maps cover communities from the mouth of the Litani east to Kfarkila, including the western Bekaa, Hasbaya and the Shebaa Farms, and the cities of Tyre, Bint Jbeil, Marjayoun and Hasbaya. Towns are given Hebrew names, often biblical. Plots are advertised from about 300,000 shekels, about $80,000. Earlier material invited buyers to purchase homes with a view of the mountains while Israeli operations in the same area were still running. Riad Al-Asaad, director general of the South Reconstruction Company, cited the advertisements in calling for a Lebanese ban on sales. About 82,000 people remained displaced in the south at the time of the later map. The land advertised belongs to Lebanese owners, in villages under occupation.[1][2]
Other approaches to owners
Arab News reported approaches to southern owners from a US law firm and from Emirati or Cypriot companies; these have not been linked to Uri Tzafon, and the parties behind them have not been named. Al-Asaad separately accused Israeli forces of bulldozing land-registry offices and taking property records, and of a scorched-earth policy in Shia villages to stop return.[1] In September 2026 the Lebanese cabinet approved a bill to bar sales in occupied areas; see Lebanese draft law banning property sales in occupied areas (2026).
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Najia Houssari, Who will protect occupied southern Lebanon from controversial land sales? Arab News, 30 September 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Roya News, Israeli extremist publishes updated map promoting land sales in southern Lebanon Roya News, accessed 22 October 2026 (Jordanian).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Amir Bohbot and Esther Davis, Uri Tzafon activists detained after breaching Lebanon border The Jerusalem Post, 5 August 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Alice Chancellor, 'Promised to us': The Israelis dreaming of settling south Lebanon Al-Monitor (AFP), 13 May 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ The Times of Israel, Settler group claims to have entered Lebanon and established outpost; IDF denies it The Times of Israel, 8 December 2024, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ Tamar Uriel-Beeri and Maya Gebeily, Israeli minister calls for annexation of southern Lebanon Reuters, 23 March 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ L'Orient Today, Ben Gvir discusses Israel's 'settlement plan' for south Lebanon L'Orient Today, 15 May 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.