“Encouraging emigration” of Palestinians is “most ethical” solution: Israeli settlers hold ‘preparing to settle Gaza’ conference

Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- Senior Israeli cabinet ministers, as well as members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, called at a Monday event for the reestablishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza, while others urged the encouragement of Palestinian emigration from the war-torn territory.
The event, dubbed the “Preparing to Settle Gaza” conference, was organized by the Nachala organization, which has for years promoted the establishment of settlements in the West Bank and is now advocating similar policies for Gaza.
Speaking at the large ultranationalist conference on the Gaza border, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that “encouraging emigration” of Palestinians of the territory was the best and “most ethical” solution.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also attended the conference, endorsed the idea of rebuilding settlements in Gaza, stating on his way to the event that the Strip was “part of the Land of Israel” and that “without settlements, there is no security.”
Numerous other government ministers and coalition MKs attended the event, including Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf of Ben Gvir’s ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party, along with Likud MKs Avichay Buaron, Tali Gotliv and Ariel Kallner.
Earlier this year, Nachala also held another conference, where a map showing plans for 15 illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza was displayed. The conference, “Settlement Brings Security and Victory”, called for new settlements to be built in the Palestinian territories.
“If we want to, we can renew settlement in Gaza,” Ben Gvir said in a speech from the podium at the conference.
“We can [also] do something else — encourage emigration. The truth is, this is the most ethical and the most correct solution,” he added, while adding that this should not be done “by force” and that Gazans should be told Israel is “giving them the option” of going to other countries.
“The Land of Israel is ours,” he claimed.
Writing on X on his way to the conference, Smotrich said that Gaza had turned into “Iranian forward terror bases,” and endangered the country.
“Today’s conference is part of a public process of advocacy and meant to harness [the public], and is intended to promote a practical process of pioneering, Zionist settlement,” he wrote.
He noted, however, that the national debate on rebuilding settlements in Gaza was relevant “for the day after the war,” which would be decided “in the normal democratic ways.”
Earlier in the day, Nachala leader Weiss went even further, essentially calling for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza by claiming that the Palestinians had “lost their right” to live there.
“Wars bring about the terrible issue of refugees. October 7 changed history, as a result of the brutal massacre Gazan Arabs lost their right to be here; they will not stay here, they will go to different countries, we will convince the world,” declared Weiss.
“We came here to settle the entire Gaza Strip, from north to south, not just part of it,” she added in reference to the purpose of the conference itself.
Weiss said that Nachala had set up six “settlement groups” comprising a total of 700 families “who are ready right now” to establish new settlements in Gaza, should the opportunity arise.
Likud minister May Golan declared that “taking territory from them is what hurts them most,” and insisted that “settlements in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] brought security” to Israel.
Speaking after her, hardline Likud MK Kallner declared that “settlements are total victory,” adding, “What they see as Dar Islam [the House of Islam] will become Dar Yahud [the House of Jews],” and alleged like Golan that settlements would improve security.
Oved Hugi, the head of the Likud’s Yad Eliyahu branch in Tel Aviv echoed Golan and Kallner in asserting that only stripping away Gazan territory from the Palestinians is the only solution.
“The Arabs must lose territory in the war, so that they remember what they lost. For an act like this [the October 7 operation], they must get the punishment of losing territory,” he said.