What this conference shows is that a considerable portion of Israel’s senior political officials feel emboldened enough to publicly declare their intentions to ethnically cleanse and then build settlements in northern Gaza.
On Monday, Israeli senior officials gathered at a settler movement conference hosted near the Gaza Strip, calling for ethnic cleansing and the construction of Israeli settlement in Gaza. Unlike what is often portrayed in the corporate media’s coverage of such events, this wasn’t some kind of “far-right fringe”.
Inside what Israel has called a closed military zone, on October 21 Israeli senior ministers and lawmakers gathered at a conference to discuss building illegal settlements in the Gaza Strip. Guarded by the Israeli military and organized by the settlement expansion organization known as Nachala, the conference attendees made it clear what they believed must be done in order to build their Jewish-Supremacist apartheid colonies.
“You will witness how Jews go to Gaza and Arabs disappear from Gaza,” said the conference’s organizer and prominent settler movement leader Daniella Weiss. While the infamous Israeli security minister Itamar Ben Gvir stated that there will be a “transfer of all Gazan citizens” through “encouraging emigration” and that “we will offer them the opportunity to move to other countries because that land belongs to us”.
While quite often there is a focus on the like of Itamar Ben-Gvir and his equally as infamous ‘Religious Zionism’ Party ally, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, it is important to note that members of Israel’s most popular political party, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, were also in attendance.
Daniella Weiss, one of the leaders of the settlement movement, was a featured speaker at the “Preparing to Resettle Gaza” Conference which took place over two days on Israel’s border with Gaza. Speaking to foreign journalists, she vowed to renew the Jewish presence in Gaza within… pic.twitter.com/SFmNA8SZce
— Rachel Fink (@RachelSFink) October 21, 2024
The Likud Party’s ‘Social Equality and Advancement of the Status of Women’ Minister, May Golan, said that “taking territory” from Arabs is the best way to “hurt them the most. Golan, who was featured in a BBC news story as one of their primary sources for Israel’s allegations that a premeditated mass-rape campaign happened on October 7, has openly declared herself “proud to be a racist” as a fascist rally.
Likud Party Lawmaker, Ariel Kallner, who had previously called for a second Nakba in Gaza told the Middle East Eye (MEE) “settlements in North Gaza and strategic places like the Philadelphi corridor” were supported by many members of his party. “I have no mercy. The only mercy we have is that we give them the chance to leave” said yet another Likud party official named Tally Gotliv.
Regular attendees of the conference also spoke to the MEE about the kind of real estate opportunities that will present themselves in Gaza, discussing how cheap it will be to move next to the sea. “It will be a bargain. Properties in Tel Aviv next to the sea cost 20-50 million shekels ($5m-$13m). Here we can sell cheap” said one Israeli settler.
However, this is not the first Israeli settlement conference held to discuss the construction of illegal Jewish colonies in Gaza, these conferences date all the way back to January with the first being held in Tel Aviv and also receiving the endorsement of senior Israeli government officials.
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In addition to this, the Nachala settler organization responsible for putting on the conference claims to have already secured a multi-million dollar deal for temporary settler housing in the Gaza Strip.
While the prospects for such fantasies of the Israeli settler movement look somewhat distant or overall bleak, they believe wholeheartedly that they will have their wishes granted. Not only is Gaza’s seafront real estate being discussed and put on the table for them, this is also the case of Southern Lebanon, which the settlement movement has already drawn up designs for constructing illegal settlements; under the assumption that South Lebanon will be placed under Israeli occupation.
What this conference shows, especially on the eve of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, is that a considerable portion of Israel’s senior political officials feel emboldened enough to publicly declare their intentions to ethnically cleanse and then build settlements in northern Gaza.
This conference is in no way a “far-right fringe”, in fact the various polls conducted concluded that up to 40% of Israelis support re-establishing settlements in the Gaza Strip, this is despite the Hamas-led October 7 attack against settlements surrounding the besieged coastal territory.
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Additionally, the Gaza Strip is not religiously significant in Judaism, the way that the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Galilee, or even parts of al-Naqab are. When arguments are made in favor of annexing land and building settlements in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent points made are to do with “teaching the Arabs a lesson” or “prime real estate”, with very few points made regarding the significance of the land itself, beyond general statements about it belonging to Jews.
Such conferences exemplify the prevalence of the goal to conquer and Judaize the land of Palestine, by leading Israeli officials. While the Israeli opposition in the Knesset, led by Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz as its most prominent voices, may not send their Party officials to such conferences, they do not speak out against the vast majority of the ideas proposed there. During the Yair Lapid-Naftali Bennet government for instance, the project to Judaize the Naqab (Negev) was placed as priority and the West Bank settler movement was not hindered.
At this time, it appears that the Israeli government is at least considering the idea of allowing the settler movement to construct settlements in the Gaza Strip, in the event that they successfully manage to annex large portions of the territory, specifically the North.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
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