United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently flew to Israel to call for a ceasefire in Gaza after Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed early in October this year. However, a ceasefire was the last thing that government ministers and hundreds of Israeli settlers were thinking about as they gathered to plan the future annexation of the enclave.
The conference, which was scheduled to coincide with the annual Sukkot religious holiday that commemorates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, discussed one particular subject: Israel's settlement of Gaza.
The event planned by Nahala, an extremist settler organization, was held less than two miles from the border with Gaza in an area closed off by the military. The conference was conducted under the army's protection.
Amid speeches, attendees could hear the sound of outgoing artillery fire directed at Gaza, which was welcomed with applause and cries of "God bless our brave soldiers." Many of the men at the event had pistols or machine guns.
Many of the attendees had stickers celebrating Meir Kahane, the late American-born rabbi. Kahane, an extremist and convicted terrorist, staunchly believed that Palestinians should be forced out of Israel.
Daniella Weiss, a Nahala leader and one of the celebrated guests at the conference, claimed that many families were ready to move to the edge of the Gaza border. Weiss added that Nahala had already entered a deal worth "millions of dollars" for temporary housing units as preparation for settling in the Strip. (Related: Pentagon sending THAAD missile defense system and U.S. troops to Israel.)
Seafront properties in Gaza are "a bargain"
Isaac Yomtovyan, an activist for Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir's extremist Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, would benefit greatly from the planned Israeli settlement of Gaza.
Yomtovyan is in the property business. According to Yomtovyan, settling Gaza would be "a good solution for the real estate problem. We are a small country and there’s big land here we can use."
When asked when Gaza could be occupied, he said that it would be done immediately. Yomtovyan also said that seafront property in Gaza would be "a bargain" compared to seafront properties in Tel Aviv, which could cost up to 20 to 50 million Israeli new shekels ($5 million to $13 million).
While the conference seems like merely a fringe event reflecting the fantasies of Israel’s settler movement, the matter is serious because big money and powerful politicians have a stake in the future of the Gaza Strip. Attendees included senior government ministers and Knesset members, including several from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotritch, who is also in charge of Israel's illegal civil administration in the West Bank, also attended the conference. Smotrich has also advocated for Israel to annex all of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Ben-Gvir also attended and many said he has a chance at becoming Israel's next prime minister. He and Smotrich are senior members of the Likud-led extremist coalition that controls Israel. Recent events have also proven that the two settler leaders are powerful enough to reach their goals.
Who are the Israeli settlers?
Settlers refer to Israeli citizens who reside on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Many of the settlements were built either entirely or partially on private Palestinian land.
As of writing, over 750,000 Israeli settlers are living on Palestinian land taken by force. These settlers currently live in about 150 settlements and 128 outposts along the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Each settlement is authorized by the Israeli government while an outpost is built without government authorization. Outposts can be made up of a small shanty with only several people to a sprawling community of at least 400 people.
However, Israeli settlements are illegal under international law since they are in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which "bans an occupying power from transferring its population to the area it occupies."
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