From the Liveblog of
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Hundreds attend Jerusalem rally for expelling Gazans, reestablishing settlements
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered in central Jerusalem for a rally supporting the forcible expulsion of the Palestinian population of Gaza and the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in the territory.
Titled “Occupation, expulsion and settlement,” the demonstration is being organized by the Nachala settlement group and other right-wing organizations.
MK Limor Son Har-Melech of the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party says that Gaza and the West Bank belong by right to the Jewish people.
“The Land of Israel is for the People of Israel. Gaza is for Jews, Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] is for Jews. They are ours in the merit of our fathers and the merit of our deeds,” says Son Har-Melech
“The expulsion of our enemies needs to be forever. We are here not only to expel but to inherit, to establish flourishing settlements full of life. Victory will be that all of Gaza returns to our hands, where Jews establish new generations of courageous settlers.”
Massi Carmel from the Haifa area, who is participating in the demonstration, says she fully supports the forcible removal of the Palestinians from Gaza.
“I support anything that needs to be done to remove these people from there and bring in the people of Israel to the Land of Israel,” Carmel says, including forcible expulsion.
Asked if it was moral to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza against their will, Carmel counters, “Is it moral to remove Jews from their homes” in reference to the Gaza Disengagement where some 8,500 Israeli settlers left or were forcibly removed by the government in 2005.
“Is it moral to murder, to rape, to burn?” she continues, saying that “everyone there was involved” in the atrocities of October 7 and that there are no innocent people in Gaza.
The Times of Israel Community.