{"id":253915,"date":"2024-02-05T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T12:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=253915"},"modified":"2024-02-05T05:09:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T05:09:56","slug":"turning-zeitoun-into-shivat-zion-israeli-summit-envisions-gaza-resettlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/02\/turning-zeitoun-into-shivat-zion-israeli-summit-envisions-gaza-resettlement\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning Zeitoun into Shivat Zion: Israeli Summit Envisions Gaza Resettlement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Israelis look at a giant map of the Gaza Strip depicting future Israeli settlements at the “Conference for Israel’s Victory” in Jerusalem, 28 Jan 2024.\u00a0 (Oren Ziv)<\/p><\/div>\n

Undeterred by the ICJ, ministers and settler leaders promoted plans to expel Palestinians and \u2018return\u2019 Israelis to Gaza at a major conference in Jerusalem.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

30 Jan 2024<\/em> – The strangest sight at the \u201cConference for Israel\u2019s Victory,\u201d which took place on Sunday evening at Jerusalem\u2019s International Convention Center, wasn\u2019t 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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Yet for the conference\u2019s participants \u2014 among them 11 cabinet ministers and 15 members of the coalition, who gleefully joined in the dancing \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich began his speech with some reservation toward the joy that predominated: \u201cI must say that I have mixed emotions when it comes to the atmosphere in this hall,\u201d he said, before adding immediately: \u201cBut there is something natural and healthy about what\u2019s here, in the strength, in the joy, in the devotion to the Land of Israel, which has the potential to grant enormous strength.\u201d National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir talked of \u201cvoluntary migration,\u201d apparently understanding the need to moderate his language somewhat in light of the ongoing legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).<\/p>\n

Despite the impressive turnout of ministers and Knesset members from Ben Gvir\u2019s Otzma Yehudit, Smotrich\u2019s Religious Zionist Party, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s Likud, and the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism \u2014 four of the parties that make up the current coalition \u2014 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<\/a> and Homesh<\/a>, where they received the government\u2019s backing to re-establish previously dismantled outposts. Since the start of the war, however, a new market has opened up for these eager entrepreneurs \u2014 and they don\u2019t plan on letting the opportunity go to waste.<\/p>\n

As for the question of what will happen to the 2.3 million Palestinians who currently call Gaza home \u2014 a question posed by many of the foreign journalists who came to cover the conference \u2014 Weiss had an answer she repeated over and over again: \u201cThe Arabs will move.\u201d She explained that, just as Israel \u201cdoesn\u2019t give them food\u201d in order to pressure Hamas to release the hostages, so too should Israel \u201cnot give them anything, so they will have to move. The world will accept this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Israeli<\/a><\/p>\n
Israeli settler leader Daniella Weiss at the \u201cConference for Israel\u2019s Victory\u201d in Jerusalem, January 28, 2024. (Oren Ziv)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2019s ruling by the ICJ that Israel must act to prevent genocide in Gaza. \u201cThe government will accede to pressure from the public,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cOctober 7 changed history,\u201d Weiss declared from the stage. \u201cGaza, the southern gate to Israel, will be wide open. Gazans will leave [the Strip] for all parts of the world, and the Jewish people will make the land of our forefathers flourish. Each and every clod of the Land of Israel that our soldiers have within their grasp gives us the necessary strength to fight against a cruel and eternal enemy. It is not to a foreign land that we are returning, but rather to the golden sands of our Gaza. There is no \u2018day after\u2019 \u2014 the day after is today, it\u2019s every day in which the Jewish people is victorious and returns to settle in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that effect, a giant map of Gaza on the wall of the conference hall was marked with the locations of hypothetical new settlements \u2014 spanning all the way from Rafah in the south to Beit Hanoun in the north. There was a booth corresponding to each settlement where you could register as an interested settler, and the booth for where Gaza City stands today even suggested new names for all of the city\u2019s neighborhoods: \u201cZeitoun\u201d will become \u201cShivat Zion\u201d; Shuja\u2019iya will become \u201cGibor Oz.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Oslo Accords are dead \u2014 Am Yisrael Chai\u2019<\/h3>\n

The organizers of the conference, it seemed, weren\u2019t especially bothered by the fact that their stance on expulsion and settlement completely contradicts the state\u2019s official line, as presented at The Hague. One of the videos exhibited at the conference was the now-infamous clip<\/a> of soldiers waiting to join Israel\u2019s ground invasion of the Strip chanting \u201cthere are no innocents in Gaza,\u201d which South Africa had brought before the ICJ as evidence of genocidal intent. The idea of \u201ctransferring\u201d Gaza\u2019s Palestinian population was mentioned in nearly every speech.<\/p>\n

When Ben Gvir stood up to speak, a few young audience members held up a banner that read, \u201cOnly transfer will bring peace.\u201d Ben Gvir responded to them: \u201cYes, and also [there must be] a moral, logical, biblical, and Halakhic [Jewish religious law] solution, encouraging migration and implementing the death penalty for terrorists \u2026 to encourage them to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Israeli<\/a><\/p>\n
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaks at the \u201cConference for Israel\u2019s Victory\u201d in Jerusalem, January 28, 2024. (Oren Ziv)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi was more direct: \u201cThere will never be a Palestinian state between the river and the sea \u2026 We have an obligation to act, for our sake, and for the sake of the supposedly uninvolved [civilians in Gaza], for voluntary migration. Even if the war that was forced upon us turns the issue of voluntary migration into coercion to the point that they say: \u2018I want to [leave].\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast to the politicians, who were at least somewhat cautious in their choice of words, other speakers were much more blunt. Rabbi Uzi Sharbaf is one of the leaders of the movement to resettle Gaza. Head of the settler group Harchivi Makom Aholech, which works to take over Palestinian property in Hebron, he was sentenced to life in prison for terror attacks with the Jewish Underground in the 1980s before being released after seven years.<\/p>\n

At the start of the conference, he declared: \u201cWe need to reflect on how so many Jews could be brutally killed in just a few hours on [October 7]. Is there just a security problem here? Many say, justifiably, that the worldview must change after the massacre. But it is not just the approach that needs to change; we need to go up a level, a floor, as a nation, as a state. Let\u2019s stop talking about parts of the Land of Israel. What is [Areas] A, B, and C? What is the north of the [Gaza] Strip? The entire Strip, the whole land, is part of the Land of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, was one of several speakers who drew a connection between the \u201cdisengagement\u201d of 2005 \u2014 in which Israel dismantled all of its settlements in the Gaza Strip along with a handful of small settlements in the northern West Bank \u2014 and the massacre carried out by Hamas.<\/p>\n

\"Israelis<\/a><\/p>\n
Israelis dance and wave flags at the \u201cConference for Israel\u2019s Victory\u201d in Jerusalem, January 28, 2024. (Oren Ziv)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAfter October 7, it\u2019s clear to everyone that where there are settlements there is security, and where there are no settlements there is terror,\u201d Dagan said. \u201cThe Jewish people \u2026 is in a rare [state of] unity in this war for its life, for the existence of the State of Israel. We must say this loud and clear. Oslo, and the expulsion of the disengagement, brought this Holocaust upon us. I say, and repeat after me: \u2018The Oslo Accords are dead \u2014 Am Yisrael Chai [the people of Israel live].\u2019\u201d The audience roared his words back in response.<\/p>\n

The head of the Kiryat Arba Council, Eliyahu Liebman, whose son Elyakim was kidnapped to Gaza while he was guarding the Nova music festival, declared that the hostages had been taken in order to enable the return to Gaza: \u201cThis evening, we remember \u2026 all the heroes who have fallen, been wounded, been kidnapped, so that we, God willing, will return quickly to settle Gush Katif and northern Shomron.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liebman, apparently unaware of the details of the proceedings at The Hague, invoked the biblical mandate to eradicate the enemies of the Israelites. \u201cThe parashah<\/i> [portion of the Torah] we read this Shabbat ends with: \u2018I will wipe out the memory of Amalek from the earth.\u2019 We, in this generation, are fighting Amalek.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the deliberations at the ICJ, Israel will have a hard time claiming that the ideas expressed at the conference don\u2019t represent official policy. In the pamphlet that was distributed to the audience, the message was even clearer than in the speeches. On the question of how Israel should treat the Palestinian population in Gaza, the lawyer Aviad Visoli \u2014 a prominent Temple movement<\/a> activist \u2014 wrote: \u201cNakba 2, meaning the mass expulsion of the Arabs of Gaza, is also justified by the laws of war.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan to resettle Gaza may seem far-fetched, and it\u2019s true that Netanyahu and the security establishment may present an obstacle \u2014 especially amid increased international scrutiny<\/a>. But it\u2019s important to remember that in the meantime, the expulsion of Palestinians and the settlement of Jews in their place is moving forward at lightning speed in the West Bank, where at least 16 Palestinian communities have been expelled by settlers<\/a> \u2014 with the full backing of the army \u2014 since October 7.<\/p>\n

Outside the conference, near the Central Bus Station, someone had spray painted the slogan of the movement: \u201cReturning to Gaza.\u201d The joy of the conference was rooted in the conviction that this return will ensure the security of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel. But someone else had seen the graffiti and inserted their own, less optimistic message: \u201dReturning to die<\/i> in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

A version of this article was first published in Hebrew on <\/i>Local Call. Read it <\/i>here<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Oren Ziv is a photojournalist, reporter for <\/em>Local Call, and a founding member of the Activestills photography collective.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – 972mag.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

30 Jan 2024 – Undeterred by the ICJ, ministers and settler leaders made plans to expel Palestinians and \u2018return\u2019 Israelis to Gaza in a \u201cConference for Israel\u2019s Victory\u201d at Jerusalem\u2019s International Convention Center. Thousands of people danced around the hall singing celebratory songs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":253917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[532,405,87,865,88,2416,715,427,880],"class_list":["post-253915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-colonialism","tag-colonization","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-massacre","tag-palestine","tag-state-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253919,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253915\/revisions\/253919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}