Politics "Return to Gaza": far-right Israelis in favor of resettlement
Right-wing extremist Israelis have called for a resettlement of the embattled coastal strip with a gathering on the edge of the Gaza Strip.
21.10.2024, 17:01
21.10.2024, 17:04
SDA
Members, MPs and a minister from the right-wing conservative ruling party Likud were also invited to the event, which was held under the slogan "Return to Gaza".
The participants received backing from Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is one of the far-right politicians in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet and supports the settlement movement. "If we want, we can renew settlements in Gaza", the Times of Israel quoted Ben-Gvir's speech.
Ben-Gvir then also spoke out in favor of "encouraging" emigration from the Gaza Strip. This should not be a coercive measure, he said. Ben-Gvir had already advocated the return of settlements to the Gaza Strip in the past, as had other nationalist government representatives.
A Likud spokesperson emphasized that this was not an event in the name of the party, but a "local initiative". The initiative by the radical settler organization Nachala took place as part of the Feast of Tabernacles. The week-long pilgrimage festival commemorates the biblical wilderness wanderings of the people of Israel.
One of several huts erected bore the name of the Likud party. "Gaza is part of the land of Israel!" was written on the T-shirt of one event participant.
Israel withdrew its army from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and forcibly evacuated around 20 settlements in the coastal strip. Right-wing extremist Israelis, including ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu's government, are now calling for the return of settlers to the area.
However, Netanyahu himself had described plans to repopulate the Gaza Strip after the war against the Islamist Hamas as unrealistic.
