Article Printed in “Ha’aretz” Israel daily newspaper on Friday, March,15, 2002.  So much for the skeptics who question, “who will come and live in the areas under attack during the presnet intifada (Arab uprising)”?

“What has brought about the sale of 18 homes in the settlement of Shavei Shomron during the past three months?
 Aryeh Ofri, chairman of the settlement's secretariat, has no explanation. ‘It's beyond me,’ he says. ‘In my sweetest dreams, I expected to sell a maximum of six or eight homes. After years of continuous growth, last year we hit a slump that was not caused by the intifada, and didn't begin with it, but which was definitely affected by the security situation.’ Shavei Shomron (Returnees to Samaria), was established north of Nablus by the Gush Emunim settler movement in 1978.
Shavei Shomron now has 110 families, and is defined by its veterans - who today are 55 years old - as a religious-traditional community settlement.
Since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, the eastern gate of the Shavei Shomron, which is only a few meters from the settlement's kindergarten, has become a busy terminal from which convoys go up to Mount Eval; tanks and armored personnel carriers are stationed literally at the fence. Ofri longingly recalls the period, which will likely never return, when the Arabs from the village of Nakura still accepted their Jewish neigbbors as Divine fate.
’More Jews than Arabs attended the funeral of their mukhtar [village head], who was killed in a traffic accident. His wife, who was pregnant with her sixth child, fell onto hard times, and we gave her food and supplies,’ he recalls.
After the outbreak of the uprising, the unsupervised hike to Mount Eval during which Benyamin Herling, rabbi of the settlement of Kedumim, was killed, started out from here. Last November, two re../side2nts of Shavei Shomron were shot from a passing car: Teenager Shimrit Hibi was severely injured, and her father, Yair, was slightly hurt.
But at this time of crisis, when the danger of terrorist attacks is mounting, the atmosphere here has suddenly changed. Lights which were extinguished have been turned on again. At the recent Purim party, the community's reception hall was full - clear evidence of a reawakening. Many families who haven't participated in the settlement's social events for a long time were in evidence.
Data of the Central Bureau of Statistics reveal that despite Arab fighting and terrorism, the settlement movement on the other ../side2 of the Green Line did not cease in 2001. There are still more people moving in than leaving. On second thought, it's not really surprising: As the country has become increasingly threatened by terror, with nowhere to which to escape, potential settlers who are in any case believers in the idea of a Greater Israel, see the settlements as being no more dangerous than Netanya and Afula, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
20 year old Haim Eyal's beliefs are clear and unequivocal; the fire of redemption burns within him: ‘We are the first sign of the future. We are here because of the difficulties,  because it's ours. I believe that the present war for the Land of Israel is God's test for the Jewish people. He created this situation so that we would search our souls.’
Hundreds of new immigrants have undergone absorption in the ulpan (Hebrew-language program) in Shavei Shomron. The four houses purchased recently in the new neighborhood by immigrants from the former Soviet Union are, therefore, a first sign that is creating great satisfaction among the leadership of the settlement.
According to Ofri, it's not only the grants, the huge reductions and the ‘Sharansky Project’ [Minister of Housing and Construction Natan Sharansky devised a plan to promote construction of 700 housing units in the West Bank] that have led to this development: He is convinced that the positive change in the community atmosphere has also made an important contribution. ‘As soon as one person buys, that creates a wave. Children who were thinking of leaving have chosen to stay, and temporary re../side2nts have also made a final decision to settle here,’ he explains.
Valentina (‘Avital’) and Alexander Vasilenko (pictured on page one) are, for the time being, renting a home in Shavei Shomron directly opposite the house they are building, and hope to receive the key in another six months. They came from Novosibirsk with their daughter, Lila. Alexander, a graduate of an arts academy, ran a ceramics studio; Valentina taught Russian language and literature in an institute for training students from abroad. At present, with no demand for his artistic creations or for her knowledge of Dostoevsky, they are living on unemployment benefits. Since that is not sufficient, twice a week Valentina travels to Kedumim to clean houses, and Alexander cares for a disabled man who lives in Shavei Shomron.
Both of them know that there is not much chance of starting a career in a new country at the age of 50. ‘We are like birds, finding sustenance wherever it is to be had,’ she laughs, in spite of everything. 
’People here are nice, one can leave the door open, life is cheaper, the air is clean. Near the sea, it's impossible to breathe, the city is a jungle,’ says Valentina, explaining why Shavei Shomron, now of all times. “