Visiting the Gaza border on Thursday, the head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, Yitzhak Goldknopf, declared that “Jewish settlement here is the solution.”
The Minister of Housing and Construction visited the region with Daniella Weiss, head of the pro-settlement movement Nachala.
On the social network [settlement nuclei] in Gaza » (book des [noyaux d’implantation] in Gaza).
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Goldknopf has repeatedly spoken out in favor of the resettlement of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip once the war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas ends.
“Jewish settlement here is the response to the terrible massacre and the response to the International Criminal Court in The Hague which, instead of dealing with the 101 hostages, chose to issue arrest warrants against the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense,” Goldknopf wrote on X.
Goldknopf did not enter the Gaza Strip, but inspected the area from the border. Photos show him observing the area through binoculars.
Unusually for an ultra-Orthodox politician, Goldknopf has recently become an advocate for the resettlement of Gaza, whose twenty-one Israeli settlements were dismantled in 2005 during the unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip.
In January, he was among eleven government ministers and fifteen coalition MPs who participated in a mass conference advocating the reconstruction of Jewish settlements in the heart of the Gaza Strip.
In May, Goldknopf released a video message endorsing a march organized on Yom HaAtzmaut to demand the resumption of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.
“It is very important to take part in this march,” he said at the time.
In August, Goldknopf called for a dramatic expansion of settlements during a tour of the recently legalized Evyatar outpost in the West Bank with Minister of Settlements and National Projects Orit Strouk and Yossi Dagan. , president of the Samaria Regional Council.
“For many years, we have been told that settlements and outposts are an obstacle to peace, and settler residents have been slandered,” he said, asserting that Israel’s response to the 7 October “must be to populate as much of the Land of Israel as possible.”
In another post, Nachala thanked the ultra-Orthodox minister for accepting the organization’s invitation to “visit and observe future settlement sites in the Gaza Strip.”
“Together we will build Jewish towns in Gaza, which will lower apartment prices in the country, understanding that without settlements there is no security. Our Gaza, forever,” the group said.
According to Israeli media, earlier this month, Israeli soldiers overrode their superiors’ orders to help Weiss enter the Gaza Strip to study potential sites for settlements.
According to public broadcaster Kann, Weiss, who leads resettlement efforts in the northern Gaza Strip, visited the Israeli part of the border fence with colleagues on November 13. The group eventually crossed the border indefinitely and briefly traveled to the Gaza Strip.
Weiss told Kann that she hoped to use the same method in Gaza as in the West Bank: get settler residents to cling to an Israeli military presence and create civilian communes that the government would eventually recognize. .
After Kann published the information, the IDF said it was investigating the incident.
Daniella Weiss, far-right activist and director of the Nachala organization, during a protest calling for resettlement from Gaza, October 21, 2024. (Jeremy Sharon/Times of Israel)
“Weiss’ entry into the Gaza Strip is unknown and has not been approved through appropriate channels,” the military said. “If the incident occurred, it is illegal and against protocol, and will be dealt with accordingly. »
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly refuted the idea that Israel wants to reinvest the Gaza Strip, although many ministers in his coalition and members of his Likud party have openly declared themselves in favor of this. idea.
In a speech Monday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel should occupy Gaza and “encourage” half of the strip’s 2.2 million Palestinians to emigrate within two years.
“Occupy Gaza is not a dirty word,” Smotrich said, echoing calls from far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has repeatedly called for “voluntary migration” of Palestinians of Gaza, who would be replaced by residents of Jewish settlements.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir participating in a rally calling for resettlement in Gaza, not far from the Israel-Gaza border, October 21, 2024. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)
Last month, Smotrich attended an event where speakers called for resettlement, and some even called for Palestinians to be expelled from the enclave. On his way to the conference, Smotrich declared that the Gaza Strip was “part of the Land of Israel” and that “without settlements there is no security.”
Members of Likud made similar comments. Social Equality Minister May Golan then declared during the conference that “taking territory” from the Arabs was what “hurt them the most” and that resettling in the Gaza Strip would strengthen Israel’s security. .
