These Israelis, Protesting Humanitarian Aid, Now Have Their Sights Set on Settling Gaza
Far-right activists trying to block the entry of humanitarian aid at the Kerem Shalom crossing, in February.
Yosef de Brasser, 23, from Rehovot, has been arrested nearly ten times since the start of the Gaza war, but has no intention of stopping. For him, the arrests are no more than a mild irritant.
“Since the start of the war, I’ve been home maybe four times. I’ve been out in the field all the time, organizing and being arrested,” he says. At first, de Brasser, a right-wing activist known to the police, focused on organizing protests against the entry of humanitarian aid and fuel into the Gaza Strip. But now, he has decided to focus on his main goal – re-establishing Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
Over the past few months, de Brasser and his associates have conducted reconnaissance on the northern part of the Gaza border region. They studied the area and monitored the army’s activity in order to prepare for their mission of breaking through the fence and entering the Gaza Strip. After extensive preparations, on Thursday morning, the group decided to make their move.
This is not the first time they have tried to enter the Gaza Strip. About two months ago, several demonstrators managed to break through the military checkpoint at the Erez Crossing, and got 500 meters beyond the fence. The demonstrators even managed to build a sukkah and place a mezuzah at the entrance.
The attempts to enter the Gaza Strip and the demonstrations against the entry of aid make it difficult for the military to operate in the area, and force it to assign soldiers to guard convoys of truck entering Gaza, as well as the border fence in places where there is a risk of a breach. But none of this seems to discourage the demonstrators, who include young people from the “hilltop youth.”
Some of them claim that the soldiers are on their side, and it is only because of their commanders that they don’t join the demonstrators. “I remember last time one of the soldiers said, ‘Settle the region, we aren’t fighting and losing brothers for nothing,'” says Shvut Albert, a 17-year-old resident of the southern Israeli moshav of Bnei Netzarim who stopped studying two years ago and works mainly in the construction of illegal farms in the West Bank.
Albert says that “the purpose of the march is to awaken the people and the country to begin to understand that it makes sense for us to move to Gaza.”
Yishai Ganot, 24, from Jerusalem, also believes that the dream of re-establishing settlements in Gaza is completely achievable. “No one takes us very seriously right now, but we are here day after day operating discreetly, and we are sure that as soon as the war ends, we will return to [former Gaza settlement] Gush Katif and to the entire northern Gaza Strip,” he asserts emphatically.
De Brasser explains that the purpose of the illegal marches is to establish facts on the ground, just like in the West Bank. “Settlements will be established in the Gaza Strip, no matter what,” he declares. “It doesn’t matter if they kick us out or not.
“Just as we are constantly establishing farms in Judea and Samaria, the same will happen in Gush Katif. The ultimate goal is to settle all of Gaza,” he continued.
One evening last week, de Brasser turned up with about 100 other demonstrators at a camping spot in the Yad Mordechai Forest, where tents had been put up amid Israeli flags and those of the religious Zionist “Kach” movement. De Brasser didn’t get a chance to stay there long, as he was arrested within a short time. He said he wasn’t surprised, given that the Defense Ministry had contacted him and warned him not to enter closed military zones. He appointed several other activists to run the march to the Gaza Strip in his place. Only a handful of them knew its exact destination.
The organizers planned to march directly to the border fence near Kibbutz Zikim, but their plans were disrupted by military and police forces who surrounded their encampment at the Yad Mordechai Forest.
Yishai Ganot spoke with several activists who serve as spotters in the field and consulted with them to recalculate a route. Towards 11:00 A.M. on Thursday, Hadas, one of the march leaders, commenced a briefing. “We have come here to settle Gaza, our Gaza” she began. “There has been a change of plans. To make sure they don’t arrest us all straight off, we will start the march right up to wherever they stop us. They will disperse us, and then we will begin the real march.”
That was exactly what happened. The demonstrators marched from the Yad Mordechai Forest to the border near Zikim, were blocked by the police, dispersed, and then regrouped by the Ashkelon junction. From there, they drove in cars to Kibbutz Zikim, parked their vehicles and began walking to the border fence. This time they failed; police and soldiers stationed in the area stopped them, and they were taken back in army patrol cars and jeeps.
For the activists, this is only the beginning. Some have moved to the south to be close to the Gaza Strip and are trying to recruit youths from all over the country to promote the Kahanist vision of Jewish settlement of the Gaza Strip.
“To make things happen, we need to be on the ground. We will continue to march to the fence, we will continue to act,” Ganot pledges. “They [the soldiers] took the northern Gaza Strip, our job is to settle it. What Gazans remember is the Nakba we dealt them, and nothing else. That’s what needs to happen.”
This article is reproduced in its entirety