Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel “can and must apply Israeli sovereignty in [the West Bank] and in Gaza.”
Addressing the Middle East Summit, a conference in Jerusalem organized by Israel 365, an Israeli media outlet aimed at American evangelicals, Smotrich said that Israel must free itself “from wrong concepts” and make an “unequivocal Israeli statement to the Arabs and the entire world that a Palestinian state will not be established,” through “the establishment of new cities and settlements deep in the [West Bank] and bringing hundreds of thousands of additional settlers to live in them.”
He added by Israel must also extend its control to Gaza, explaining that “where there is no civilian presence, there is no long-term military presence, and unfortunately, we have seen and in the past year we have received very painful evidence that when there is no military presence for a long time, there is no security and there is an existential threat to the State of Israel and its citizens, and we must not allow this.”
Smotrich stated that Israel has very little strategic depth and cannot allow a Palestinian state “become an Iranian base,” saying that “the absolute majority of the residents of Gaza supported Hamas and the massacre” on October 7.
“Encourage emigration” of Palestinians is “correct solution” to “re-settle” Gaza
Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, several Israeli officials, including members of the cabinet and settlement leaders, have made inflammatory and racist remarks that reflect anti-Palestinian sentiments.
Their remarks include calls for emigration of Palestinians out of Gaza to “re-settle” the coastal enclave.
On November 14, Smotrich stated: “I welcome the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world.. This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region after 75 years of refugees, poverty and danger.”
He added: “The State of Israel will no longer be able to accept the existence of an independent entity in Gaza”.
On January 1, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich presented the migration of Palestinians as a solution for securing the stability necessary to allow Israelis in the south to return.
The war presents an “opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza,” Ben-Gvir said, calling such a policy “a correct, just, moral and humane solution.”
“We cannot withdraw from any territory we are in in the Gaza Strip. Not only do I not rule out Jewish settlement there, I believe it is also an important thing,” he said.
The “correct solution” is “to encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents to countries that will agree to take in the refugees,” Smotrich added, predicting that “Israel will permanently control the territory of the Gaza Strip,” including through the establishment of settlements.
In November 2023, MKs Danny Danon (Likud) and Ram Ben-Barak (Yesh Atid) published an op-ed piece for The Wall Street Journal, calling for “countries around the world to accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate.”
In an article in the Jerusalem Post, Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel of Likud reiterated this proposal. She referred to Gaza as “a breeding ground for extremism” and called for the “voluntary resettlement” of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip.
At the end of December 2023, the leader of the Nachala Israeli settlement movement, Daniella Weiss, appeared on mainstream television calling for Palestinians to be cleared from Gaza.
“This was so that Israeli settlers “can see the sea … There will be no homes, there will be no Arabs – it’s just an elegant way of saying, I want to see the sea.” She declared that Gaza City had always been “one of the cities of Israel. We’re just going back. There was a historical mistake and now we are fixing it.”
In January, thousands of participants, including ministers and coalition MKs turned out at the International Convention Center for a conference calling for the resettlement of Gaza.
The head of the “Samaria” Regional Council Yossi Dagan enthused the participants. “Repeat after me: ‘The Oslo Accords are dead, the People of Israel live,” he screamed from the stage.
“We must return home and control the territory, as well as propose a moral, Torah and halakhic logic – encouraging emigration [for Gazans] and the death penalty for terrorists,” Ben-Gvir also said at the conference.
“They must be executed, Nukhba after Nukhba, terrorist after terrorist.”
Likud minister Shlomo Karhi clarified that the transfer of the Palestinians of Gaza, in his words “voluntary emigration,” is the “only way to exact a heavy price from the Nazis of Hamas and ensure security.”
“Gaza, the southern gate, will open wide, the Gazans will pass through it to the rest of the world and the People of Israel will settle Gaza,” said Daniella Weiss, one of the organizers of the conference.
“We should dig up the foundations of the homes, grind up the concrete and recycle it to build, that will be the quickest and most environmentally friendly way,” Avi Farhan, one of the symbols of the previous settlement in the Gaza Strip.
Far-right Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu also said: “They can go to Ireland or deserts; the monsters in Gaza should find a solution by themselves.” Eliyahu added the northern part of the Strip has no right to exist, adding that anyone waving a Palestinian flag “shouldn’t continue to live on the face of the earth.”