ShareNEAR GAZA: Jewish settlers, including ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, gathered on the border of Gaza on Monday, where they called for settlements the Zionist entity evacuated two decades ago to be re-established in the Palestinian territory, Reuters reports. The Zionist entity withdrew its military and settlers from Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation, and Netanyahu has said it does not intend to maintain a permanent presence again. But as the Zionist entity’s assault on the territory has entered a second year, Netanyahu has yet to provide clarity on who he sees governing Gaza after the war. Some of his government allies, however, have been explicit about their own endgame.
“If we want it, we can renew settlements in Gaza,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told the hundreds who gathered for a two-day outdoor conference titled Preparing to Resettle Gaza, held about 3 km (2 miles) from the enclave. Smoke could be seen rising in Gaza and the loud bangs of artillery sounded in the distance. Ben-Gvir also called for the Zionist entity to “encourage emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza. “It’s the best and most moral solution, not by force but by telling them: ‘We’re giving you the option, leave to other countries, the Land of (the Zionist entity) is ours’,” he said.
‘Critical days’
The conference was organized by members of Netanyahu’s Likud party and the Nahala organization, a group of ideological settlers in the occupied West Bank, who see themselves as pioneers redeeming Biblical heartland promised by God. All world powers, except the United States, deem settlements the Zionist entity built in territory seized in the 1967 war as illegal under international law and their expansion as an obstacle to peace, since they eat away at land the Palestinians want for a future state. The Zionist entity disputes this view and cites Biblical and historical ties to the land, as well as security needs.
The settler movement has cast the entity’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza as a fatal mistake that led to Hamas taking the territory over, enabling it to use Gaza as a base to fire thousands of rockets from it at the Zionist entity over the years. Dozens of Zionists, many of which are couples with children, gathered at the conference. “In these critical days, while the (the Zionist entity) is looking to the day after, we want to raise awareness that only settlements will bring about the security we had 20 years ago,” said Itzik Fitoussi, who was evicted from Gaza’s settlements in 2005 and lost his soldier son on October 7, 2023.
Sky News spoke with Reshit, who was there with her friends. She is the daughter of a Zionist soldier who spent months in Gaza and is now fighting in Lebanon. When asked about what should happen to the Palestinians who already live in Gaza, Reshit “doesn’t miss a beat,” according to Sky News. “We should kill them, every last one of them. And if the government won’t do that then we should just kick them out. This is our land. And we deserve it.” Avivit John, from nearby Kibbutz Be’eri, was demonstrating against the settler conference. “We are against settlements in Gaza,” she said. “We want to live in peace with our (Palestinian) neighbors.” — Agencies
