‘It is doable’: 10 Likud MKs to attend conference calling for ‘resettling Gaza’

Almost a third of lawmakers in Netanyahu’s party to participate in event organized by Nachala Settlement Movement, after a similar confab months ago drew widespread backlash

Thousands of people turn out for an ultra-nationalist march and rally in Sderot to call for the rebuilding of Jewish settlements in Gaza, May 14, 2024. (Courtesy Nachala Settlement Movement)
Thousands of people turn out for an ultra-nationalist march and rally in Sderot to call for the rebuilding of Jewish settlements in Gaza, May 14, 2024. (Courtesy Nachala Settlement Movement)

Ten of the 32 lawmakers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, including a cabinet minister, announced on Wednesday that they will be participating in a conference tagged “Preparing to Resettle Gaza” scheduled for next week in the Gaza border region close to Sderot.

“A year after the pogroms (of October 7), we will stand together — Likud members, regional [Likud] branch chairs, MKs and ministers — to jointly declare that ‘Gaza is ours. Forever,'” a poster advertising the October 21 event read.

“Victory is settlement. It is doable” added a message on a Gaza settlement WhatsApp channel where it announced the participation of nearly one-third of the Likud faction Knesset members.

The Likud legislators set to participate are Social Equality Minister MK May Golan and MKs Avichay Buaron, Sasson Guetta, Tally Gotliv, Eli Dallal, Nissim Vaturi, Hanoch Milwidsky, Ariel Kallner, Kati Shitrit and Osher Shkalim.

The event — in which relatives of some of the Gaza hostages will participate along with bereaved families and families of active duty soldiers — is being organized by the Nachala Settlement Movement organization, which advocates for Jewish settlement in the West Bank where it has helped establish illegal settlement outposts.

Nachala organized another conference in January, which also advocated for the reestablishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza in addition to “encouraging voluntary emigration” of Palestinians out of the Strip. The gathering was attended by over two dozen ministers and lawmakers.

Ministers and MKs dance during a conference calling to resettle the Gaza Strip at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem on January 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Other organizers of the event next week include the far-right Otzma Yehudit party headed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and the youth chapter of the far-right Religious Zionism party led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Smotrich and Ben Gvir are expected to attend the conference, along with Otzma Yehudit Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the idea of Israeli civilians resettling Gaza. But critics fear the premier’s prosecution of the war could lead in that direction, pointing to the latest military operations in northern Gaza, which have included mass evacuation orders and little to no humanitarian aid allowed in for nearly two weeks. Israel says it is trying to prevent the revival of Hamas in the area and that there are no ulterior motives for the north Gaza operation.

The US has spoken out against the resettlement of Gaza, and included that stance in one of its principles for the post-war management of Gaza. The Biden administration also called the messaging of the previous Nachala-led conference “inflammatory and irresponsible.”

National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot attends a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset on July 31, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

MK Gadi Eisenkot, of the opposition’s National Unity party, slammed the lawmakers planning to attend next week’s conference.

“A year later, and it’s like we haven’t learned a thing,” he said in a statement on Wednesday, referring to the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which sparked the ongoing war.

“Large parts of the coalition are working to shatter the broad national consensus around this just war,” continued Eisenkot, who also cited ongoing efforts to pass a law exempting most ultra-Orthodox men from obligatory military service.

“Today, we were informed of the intention to set up settlement projects in the Gaza Strip, a controversial issue in Israeli society. This is not what our sons and daughters sacrificed their lives for,” he said. Eisenkot lost both a son and a nephew fighting in the war last year.

The National Unity MK said the conference was “totally against the goals of the war and the statements of the prime minister.”

While not taking a firm stance on the issue of settling Gaza, National Unity chair Benny Gantz said those in the ruling Likud who back the reestablishment of Israeli communities in the Strip must support an outline for mandatory service in the military that gives the IDF the resources to defend residents in the enclave.

“Netanyahu himself has already said he does not intend to allow the settlement of Gaza,” Gantz wrote on X. “But those who still support settlement in the Gaza Strip should first raise their hands in favor of a [military] service framework that will provide the IDF manpower for its missions, and only then go to conferences.”

Gantz was referring to efforts by some in the government to ensure ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva students remain exempt from military service, despite the military’s manpower shortage.

Critics of Gantz’s post responded by charging that his lack of explicit opposition to the goal of reestablishing settlements is tantamount to support of such a policy.

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