Settler leaders welcome Trump’s Gaza proposal: Israel should ‘adopt the vision today, translate it into action’
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Settler leaders react excitedly to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle the Palestinian population of Gaza in other countries, calling on the Israeli government to implement the plan immediately and then start building Jewish settlements in the territory.
Israel Ganz, head of the umbrella settler body the Yesha Council, lauds Trump’s idea, saying it amounted to “declaring an end to the Palestinian dream to destroy Israel through Gaza or the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the land of Israel.”
Ganz, who also heads the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council – a municipal authority governing several dozen West Bank settlements and illegal outposts – adds that the Israeli government should “adopt Trump’s vision today, and translate it into action,” which he said should also include “the application of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” meaning the annexation of the West Bank.
The Nachala settlement organization, which has been promoting and lobbying for the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza since the outset of the war, issues a call to action.
“On the assumption that Trump’s declaration about transferring Gazans to other countries is translated into practical action, settlements should be quickly built across the entire Gaza Strip,” says Nachala which has organized hundreds of activists into groups to establish new settlements in Gaza if the opportunity to do so arises.
The veteran Peace Now organization, which campaigns against the settlements and for a two-state solution, dismisses Trump’s proposal, however, saying there is “no possibility of transferring two million Gazans” out of the territory.
“The only ones who sooner or later will need to evacuate are the tens of thousands of settlers back to the borders of the State of Israel as part of a diplomatic agreement for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel,” the organization says in reference to settlers in the West Bank.
“The time has come to stop fantasizing about [Israeli] reconstruction and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and look reality in the eyes – there is only one solution that will guarantee security and stability in the Middle East and that is a two-state solution for two peoples and to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”