Says he ‘expects’ Netanyahu to give him a war cabinet seat

Backing settlement, Ben Gvir says he’d be ‘very happy to live in Gaza’ after the war

If ‘hundreds of thousands’ of Palestinians leave the Strip, ‘we will be able to bring in more and more people,’ minister says

Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir leads an Otzma Yehudit faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on February 19, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir leads an Otzma Yehudit faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on February 19, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Tuesday that he would be “very happy to live in Gaza” following the war against Hamas, musing that a mass exodus of Palestinians could create room for a significant influx of Israeli settlers.

In an interview with ultra-Orthodox news site Kikar Hashabat, Ben Gvir said that he would like to see the war prosecuted until the end in the southern city of Rafah, followed by a full-on Israeli military rule in which Jerusalem would control the coastal territory “unequivocally.”

This would entail the reestablishment of Jewish settlement, “but that’s not enough,” he continued, reiterating his call to encourage the “voluntary emigration” of Gazans — although he stipulated that he was “not saying everyone” should leave.

Israelis should return to the settlements evacuated during the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza, Ben Gvir added, stating that if “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians leave the Strip, “we will be able to bring in more and more people.”

“I would be very happy to live in Gaza,” Ben Gvir said.

Ben Gvir is a follower of the late rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the far-right Kach party, which was banned in the 1980s and which advocated for the expulsion of Palestinians and Arab Israelis. He has sought to somewhat distance himself from Kahane in recent years and, speaking at a commemoration for Kahane in 2022, declared that he did “not support the deportation of all Arabs.

Ben Gvir has been an outspoken advocate for resettling Gaza, having promoted these ideas at a Jerusalem conference and at a recent ultra-nationalist march and rally in Sderot.

In Sderot last week, Ben Gvir declared that Israel needed to do two things, “return to Gaza” and “encourage the voluntary departure of Gaza’s residents.”

“It is ethical! It is rational! It is right! It is the truth! It is the Torah and it is the only way! And yes, it is humane,” he argued.

Israel’s position since the start of the campaign has been that it will not take control of Gaza but rather will seek a replacement regime to take over from the Hamas terror group.

A settler in the Gaza Strip settlement of Netzarim argues with soldiers who have come to evacuate him from his home, accusing them of betraying Jewish values, during the disengagement from Gaza, August 22, 2005. (Flash90)

According to a Hebrew University poll released last December, more than half of Israelis oppose annexing the Gaza Strip and reestablishing settlements uprooted during the 2005 Disengagement.

Speaking with Kikar Hashabat, Ben Gvir also said that he “expects” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appoint him to the small war cabinet that has been managing the war, and that he would have run the war very differently from how it has been managed thus far, including cutting off fuel and pushing forward in Rafah “until the end.”

Ben Gvir also called for a ground operation in Lebanon.

“We will not be able to end this campaign without a war in the north,” he asserted, a day after he said such a war should entail invading Lebanon and seeking to fully dismantle the Hezbollah terror group.

Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.

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