Senior ministers call for new settlements in Gaza at ultranationalist conference
'Taking territory' from Palestinians is what 'hurts them most,' says Likud minister Golan, while far-right police minister Ben Gvir says Gazans should be 'encouraged' to emigrate
Senior cabinet ministers, as well as members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, called at a Monday event for the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza, while others urged the encouragement of Palestinian emigration from the war-ravaged territory.
Speaking at the large ultranationalist conference on the Gaza border, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that “encouraging emigration” of Palestinian residents of the territory was the best and “most ethical” solution to the conflict.
Likud members made similar comments, with Social Equality and Advancement of the Status of Women Minister May Golan declaring at the conference that “taking territory” from Arabs is what “hurts them most,” and that settlements in Gaza would bolster Israel’s security.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also attended the conference, endorsed the idea of rebuilding settlements in Gaza, stating on his way to the event that the Strip was “part of the Land of Israel” and that “without settlements, there is no security.”
Numerous other government ministers and coalition MKs attended the event, including Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf of Ben Gvir’s ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party, along with Likud MKs Avichay Buaron, Tali Gotliv and Ariel Kallner.
Earlier, veteran settler leader Daniella Weiss, whose settlement movement organized the conference, declared that Gazans had “lost their right” to live in the territory in the wake of the October 7 massacre and would not remain there.
A group of several dozen anti-government protesters, including residents of Gaza border communities, demonstrated outside the designated area for the conference, and decried the staging of the event in the area when hostages, including residents of the area, were still being held hostage by Hamas.
Police prevented the protesters from entering the conference area itself.
The event, dubbed the “Preparing to Settle Gaza” conference, was organized by the Nachala organization, which has for years promoted the establishment of settlements in the West Bank and is now advocating similar policies for Gaza.
The conference sported the characteristic vim and ardor of the settler community, with musicians such as Aharon Razel providing the soundtrack to some zestful dancing in between political speeches.
The event was attended overwhelmingly by members of the religious-Zionist community, many of whom came from West Bank settlements for the day. Some set up sukkahs, the temporary huts built for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, on Sunday night and slept at the site ahead of the conference.
Workshops were put on by settler activists associated with Nachala to provide instructions on how to build new settlements from scratch, as Nachala has done on several occasions, most notably establishing the illegal outpost of Evyatar in the northern West Bank, which was recently legalized by the government.
Along with Nachala, the ultranationalist Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties also participated in organizing the conference, while the Likud party sent a delegation of some 10 MKs to attend the event.
It was the second such conference to be held this year, after a similar event staged by Nachala in Jerusalem in January led to international condemnation.
“If we want to, we can renew settlement in Gaza,” Ben Gvir said in a brief but central speech from the podium at the conference, held opposite the Netzarim Corridor, which dissects central Gaza.
“We can [also] do something else — encourage emigration. The truth is, this is the most ethical and the most correct solution,” he added, while adding that this should not be done “by force” and that Gazans should be told Israel is “giving them the option” of going to other countries.
“The Land of Israel is ours,” he declared.
Writing on X on his way to the conference, Smotrich said that territory relinquished by Israel in the past had turned into “Iranian forward terror bases,” and endangered the country.
“Today’s conference is part of a public process of advocacy and meant to harness [the public], and is intended to promote a practical process of pioneering, Zionist settlement,” he wrote.
He noted, however, that the national debate on rebuilding settlements in Gaza was relevant “for the day after the war,” which would be decided “in the normal democratic ways.”
Earlier in the day, Nachala leader Weiss went even further, essentially calling for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza by proclaiming that the Palestinian population had “lost their right” to live there.
“Wars bring about the terrible issue of refugees. October 7 changed history, as a result of the brutal massacre Gazan Arabs lost their right to be here; they will not stay here, they will go to different countries, we will convince the world,” declared Weiss, a veteran campaigner for the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
“We came here to settle the entire Gaza Strip, from north to south, not just part of it,” she added in reference to the purpose of the conference itself.
Weiss said that Nachala had set up six “settlement groups” comprising a total of 700 families “who are ready right now” to establish new settlements in Gaza, should the opportunity arise.
In a rambling speech assailing the media, progressives and other perceived opponents of the political right, Likud minister Golan declared that “taking territory from them is what hurts them most,” and insisted that “settlements in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] brought security” to Israel.
Speaking after her, hardline Likud MK Kallner declared that “settlements are total victory,” adding, “What they see as Dar Islam [the House of Islam] will become Dar Yahud [the House of Jews],” and insisting like Golan that settlements would improve security.
The theme of settlements providing Israel with greater security was widely voiced at the conference, and repeated by Haim Waltzer, a current resident of the recently legalized West Bank outpost of Evyatar and former resident of the Gush Katif settlements in Gaza, which were evacuated in 2005 under the Gaza Disengagement plan.
“Settling the land is my life’s mission. The real reason is that God commanded us [to settle the land] when he gave us the land 3,000 years ago as is written in the Bible,” said Waltzer.
“Another reason why we want to settle Gaza is because I believe that this is the only thing that will bring peace,” he said.
“We are a nation of peace, we only want peace. But I don’t think we have a partner for peace. The only way there will be quiet in Tel Aviv is if we settle Gaza — that is the only way they will feel defeated. The only thing they care about is land. [Taking it away] and settling there is the only thing that will make them feel that we have won and they have been defeated.”
Asked who should govern the Palestinian population of Gaza if Israel resettled the territory and annexed it as the ultranationalist parties seek, Waltzer endorsed Ben Gvir’s policy of “encouraging emigration.”
Oved Hugi, the head of the Likud’s Yad Eliyahu branch in Tel Aviv and one of the few not overtly religious participants in the conference, echoed Golan and Kallner in asserting that only stripping away Gazan territory from the Palestinians would serve as a sufficient deterrent from continuing the conflict with Israel.
Hugi advocated for lopping off northern Gaza from the coastal territory and allocating its land to the kibbutzim and other Israeli communities of the Gaza border region, for settlement and development, as well as maintaining Israeli control over the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border to prevent Hamas from rearming.
“The Arabs must lose territory in the war, so that they remember that they lost. For an act like this [the October 7 massacre], they must get the punishment of losing territory,” he said in the Likud sukkah set up at the event.