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International law means nothing in the face of God’s commandments for 500 Jews of all ages camped at the gates of Gaza, which they consider part of their promised land. They claim their right to occupy the Strip and even to expel its inhabitants via supremacist rhetoric. They have the support of the Israeli government. The ultra-nationalist ministers of National Security and Finance, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich respectively, who are also settlers, visited the camp on Monday afternoon.
Those attending the rally in support of the Israeli occupation of the Strip were protected by the army and the police. “In less than a year, you will see the Jews come to Gaza and the Arabs disappear,” said Daniella Weiss, 79, the best-known leader of the Israeli settler movement, amid threats and triumphalism under one of the tents set up about 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) from the border fence with Gaza, the same barrier that hundreds of Palestinian militiamen led by Hamas stormed on October 7, 2023, to perpetrate the worst massacre in Israel’s history, leaving 1,200 people dead according to official figures.
That day, the inhabitants of Gaza lost the right to remain there according to Weiss, who was sanctioned by Canada last June for “facilitating, supporting or financing” violence by Jewish radicals against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. Her discourse, disseminated for decades, fuels the expectations of those present at the rally. Some belong to the 700 families who have signed up to the list to settle in the Palestinian enclave. In recent months, housing developments have even been planned.
From the camp, while Israeli artillery can be heard intermittently, one can see the buildings in the Strip, which have been the target of bombardments for over a year. The Israeli army has been maintaining a heavy offensive, especially in the north. At least 32 people were killed Monday in attacks on Gaza, including at a United Nations school where hundreds of displaced citizens are taking refuge.
“The land of Israel belongs only to the Israeli people,” says Osher Shekalim, a member of parliament for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Despite the images and data released by the UN, he considers the humanitarian disaster caused in Gaza by Israeli occupation troops to be a “lie.” “I hope the Palestinians disappear,” he adds.
Weiss has even organized boat trips to the Strip’s shores for her followers to observe the devastation of the war. “I pray that I will soon be able to enjoy the pleasure of the Gaza coast,” she says, speaking openly of ethnic cleansing in the Strip. Around her, children attend workshops on handicrafts or with domestic animals while eating popcorn, hot dogs, and cotton candy offered to them at various stalls.
Some of the participants in the initiative, promoted by far-right and ultra-nationalist groups, are former settlers in the Strip, where there were Jewish settlements until 2005 when then-prime minister Ariel Sharon ordered the withdrawal of Israeli civilians and soldiers. Now, some ultra-nationalists want to return to the enclave, like Avi Farhan, 78, who dances in a circle to the rhythm of the music, holding an Israeli flag and a photo of himself in front of what was once his home in the Gush Kativ settlements. Ben-Gvir joins the improvised dance floor shortly after.
Elihayu Binyamin, 38, also lived in Gaza between 2003 and 2005. He is the father of five children with another on the way. He fervently wants to return and settle there with his family. Leaving the Strip was “a crime,” he believes, and “should never have happened” because “from then on, the problems began, especially on October 7.” He carries a gun on his belt, like many of those present. That is why, in addition to retaking the settlements, “we have to send them [the Palestinians in Gaza] out, because that is really what they want. Give them money and let them go to other parts of the world,” he says. His vision of Israel, which would also include parts of Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, does not allow for the same rights to be recognized for the Arabs who remain under the Jewish State.
“I imagine we will join in the second wave of families,” says Shira Leff Kreitman, 31, a mother of three from the United States. She would even stay in a caravan in Gaza and says she knows the Palestinian enclave well, thanks to acquaintances who are in the military, although she has never been there.
Malkiel Barhai, 35, a settler from Eviatar, a controversial settlement in the northern West Bank that has been evicted several times and is home to 16 families, has come to lend his support. Wearing a cowboy hat, Barhai states his belief that Israeli troops have not completely cleared Gaza of “terrorists” and that as such, something is to be expected. He believes that after the Jews left in 2005 they lost the opportunity to coexist together, and that since October 7 everything has changed and the Palestinians must now leave. For him, the territories of Gaza and the West Bank are as much Israeli as the city of Tel Aviv. He even proposes Jewish settlements in areas where the army is advancing in Lebanon.
Lior Amihai, director of the Israeli NGO Peace Now, has written a letter to the head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to warn of the danger he believes is posed by the initiative of the far-right settlers and the support they receive from ministers and parliamentarians while 100 hostages are still being held in the Strip.
Weiss boasts that they have already created “more than 330 settlements in Judea and Samaria [as Israel refers to the West Bank] and the Golan Heights,” a Syrian zone occupied by Israel, on which they base their desire “to do the same here in Gaza […] The Arabs have lost their right to remain in this sacred place,” she insists. And in this, she acknowledges, they have political support. In recent months, she says that friends have called her to ask her to reserve plots on the beach for them.
Eliyahu Binyamin, like many at the gathering, peppers his speech with constant religious references and is convinced that “the people of Israel should not vote,” since God is the “only leader” to be obeyed. For him, exercising the right to vote is an obligatory procedure but he distrusts politicians and, if there is any option he might favor, it is the extreme right of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. When asked about the effects of the Israeli attacks on the Strip, he says the army is “merciful” in warning the population ahead of bombardments. Israel has forced hundreds of thousands of people to move from one end of the Strip to the other several times amid constant attacks. Several of Binyamin’s children mill around him during the interview. By the time it concludes, they have all gone. “Maybe they are already in Gaza,” he jokes.
