Turning Zeitoun into Shivat Zion: Israeli summit envisions Gaza resettlement
Israelis look at a giant map of the Gaza Strip depicting future Israeli settlements at the ‘Conference for Israel’s Victory’ in Jerusalem, 28 January 2024
Oren Ziv reports in +972 on 30 January 2024:
The strangest sight at the “Conference for Israel’s Victory,” which took place on Sunday [28 January] evening at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, wasn’t the map depicting dozens of new settlements that Israeli settlers hope to establish throughout the Gaza Strip after the war is over. It was the moment when thousands of people danced around the hall singing celebratory songs — a rare spectacle in post-October 7 Israel, with most of the nation still mourning the victims of the Hamas-led attacks and fearing for the safety of the hostages in Gaza.
Yet for the conference’s participants — among them 11 cabinet ministers and 15 members of the coalition, who gleefully joined in the dancing — there is indeed something to celebrate. For them, October 7 and the subsequent war have presented an unprecedented opportunity to reconquer Gaza, and, if possible, to engineer the situation such that there will be no Palestinians left when the new settlers arrive.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich began his speech with some reservation toward the joy that predominated: “I must say that I have mixed emotions when it comes to the atmosphere in this hall,” he said, before adding immediately: “But there is something natural and healthy about what’s here, in the strength, in the joy, in the devotion to the Land of Israel, which has the potential to grant enormous strength.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir talked of “voluntary migration,” apparently understanding the need to moderate his language somewhat in light of the ongoing legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Despite the impressive turnout of ministers and Knesset members from Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit, Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, and the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism — four of the parties that make up the current coalition — the true stars of the conference were the head of the Samaria Council, Yossi Dagan, and the chairwoman of the major settler organization Nahala, Daniella Weiss. Before October 7, they had been busy in the West Bank, in Eviatar and Homesh, where they received the government’s backing to re-establish previously dismantled outposts. Since the start of the war, however, a new market has opened up for these eager entrepreneurs — and they don’t plan on letting the opportunity go to waste.
As for the question of what will happen to the 2.3 million Palestinians who currently call Gaza home — a question posed by many of the foreign journalists who came to cover the conference — Weiss had an answer she repeated over and over again: “The Arabs will move.” She explained that, just as Israel “doesn’t give them food” in order to pressure Hamas to release the hostages, so too should Israel “not give them anything, so they will have to move. The world will accept this.”
Experienced in the complex dynamics between the settlement movement and the Israeli government, Weiss smiled when she was asked about how Netanyahu will respond to last week’s ruling by the ICJ that Israel must act to prevent genocide in Gaza. “The government will accede to pressure from the public,” she replied.