(Report in partnership with Local Call, image credit: Oren Ziv)
“We came here with one clear purpose: to settle the entire Gaza Strip.”
That was the declaration of Israeli settler leader Daniella Weiss at a gathering of hundreds of right-wing Israelis near Gaza on Monday, where they celebrated the Jewish festival of Sukkot by calling to erect settlements inside the besieged enclave.
This was not the biggest event of the past year to promote that demand: in January, thousands of Israelis attended a major conference in Jerusalem, including several government ministers and Knesset members; and in May, thousands marched in the city of Sderot and held a rally on a hill overlooking the Strip. It was also not the most forceful: back in March, right-wing activists broke through Erez Crossing and established a symbolic “outpost” before the army evicted them.
But this well-organized, calm, and joyous gathering — which was approved and held against all logic in a closed military zone near the border, and was attended by several senior figures in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party — marked a new step in the effort to mainstream the idea of resettling Gaza with Jewish Israelis.
And while the Israeli government has repeatedly denied to U.S. officials that the army is implementing the so-called “Generals’ Plan” to besiege, starve, and expel the residents of northern Gaza before annexing the territory to Israel, it was evident that participants in Monday’s event were counting on such a plan to cleanse the area for Jewish settlement. According to the UN, there are hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still in northern Gaza — but several participants spoke as if the area were nearly empty.
