Netanyahu's Likud Organizes Event Promoting Israel's Post-War Resettlement Of Gaza

Since October 7th, 2023, Israel's war that initially began as a response to attacks led by Hamas has mutated into a larger conflict that has brought the same carnage to Lebanon. Increased hostilities with Iran resulting from Israel's invasion of Lebanon threaten to make the Middle East the axis of the outbreak of World War III. As the stability of the region continues to deteriorate with mass civilian casualties at the hands of the IDF becoming all but a daily occurrence, questions have arisen about what the true endgame of the Netanyahu regime is.

While Israel's wartime government has maintained its position that the war in Gaza is aimed at vanquishing the specter of terrorism by destroying Hamas, the ulterior motives driving the conflict have begun to seep through the cracks in the foundation of that argument. The revelation that Netanyahu's party, Likud, is coordinating a conference titled 'Preparing To Settle Gaza' conveys the true endgame of Israel's ruling elite.

​The event will be hosted by Nachala, a radical organization that was created to advocate for the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. It will feature a cadre of members from Likud and other ultra Zionist parties in Israel's government who will use the event to foster support of the vision they have for shaping the future of the Gaza Strip. The organization traces its origins back to 2006 after it was created by the Rabbi Moshe Levinger, a prominent leader of the Gush Emunim Settlement Movement, and fellow pro-settlement advocate Hana Porat. In recent years, Nachala has relied on the funding network of the Kabbalistic Hasidic Jewish sect Chabad Lubavitch to advance its aims. In 2022, Nachala was able to harness Chabad's vast resources to raise $5 million shekels in just 3 days to fund the building of more illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

While Nachala has focused its efforts on the West Bank since its inception, the group has started to exploit the attacks of October 7th in order to expand its mission into Gaza. The resettlement of the Gaza Strip has become ingrained in the settlement movement's platform, coalescing with the mutual aim of Israel's far-right ruling coalition led by Likud and Netanyahu. Nachala reflected how Netanyahu's government has sanctioned their efforts with remarks regarding the forthcoming conference, stating "the return to settlement in Gaza is no longer just an idea but a process that is already in advanced stages, with government and public support."

Israel's Social Equality Minister May Golan, Knesset Ministers Tally Gotliv, Osher Shkalim, and Hanoch Milwidsky have each confirmed that they will be attending the Nachala conference along with 6 other members of Likud that the invitation extended by the party has listed as participants. Nachala also announced that Jewish supremacist ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are also expected to be in attendance. In total, nearly one-third of the lawmakers in Netanyahu's party will be participating in the event.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has been one of the most outspoken members of advocates of a vision for expanded Israeli settlement of Palestinian territories. Smotrich is himself an illegal settler of the West Bank living in the settlement of Kedumim, which was built in violation of international law. In March 2023, Smotrich spoke at a conference in Paris held to memorialize right-wing Likud activist and Jewish Agency board member Jacques Kupfer, who passed away in 2021. At the conference, Smotrich was pictured speaking at a podium displaying a map of Greater Israel. His speech was marked by claims that the Palestinian people are merely an invention of the Arab world along with other rhetoric expressing his Jewish supremacist views that have been echoed by Nachala. 

Smotrich's participation in the 2023 conference in memoriam of Kupfer promoting a vision for Greater Israel led to a diplomatic crisis with neighboring Jordan, whose territory was annexed into the borders displayed by the map he stood behind while giving his speech. Although Israeli officials were able to ease tensions with Jordan, Smotrich continued to amplify his extremist rhetoric aimed at realizing the vision for Greater Israel.

In a documentary released earlier this October, Smotrich advocated for the Zionist goal of conquering parts of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. He called for vast territories of those nations to be assimilated into Israel and placed under the rule of a Jewish state, erasing the cultures that annexing such territories would displace. “I want a Jewish state….It is a country run according to the values of the Jewish people.” he said. Smotrich succinctly summarized that radical religious beliefs were fueling that mission, alluding to scripture guiding the vision for Greater Israel when he stated “It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus.”

The conference being held by Nachala exemplifies the growing momentum of the movement promoting Israel's ultimate endgame of purging Palestinians from the Gaza Strip so that it can be resettled by the Jewish state. Nachala had previously held a similar conference in January. During the last conference, the aims of supporters to displace Palestinians was in full view. One banner prominently displayed the message “Only a transfer [of Palestinians from Gaza] will bring peace”, a message ironically echoing language that Adolf Hitler used to garner support for the Haavara Agreement that the NSDAP negotiated with the World Zionist Congress to facilitate a mass transfer of Jews from Germany in an effort to settle mandatory Palestine. Although Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke out against the event held in January to subdue backlash against it, his message appears to be little more than one designed to achieve better optics. The obvious disingenuousness of his message is evident as the forthcoming conference includes a larger contingent of members from Likud.

Despite the obvious contradiction of supporting a vision for a Greater Israel, the Netanyahu regime continues to publicly hold the position that Israel has no intention of establishing settlements in the Gaza Strip once the war with Hamas comes to an end. The Israeli Prime Minister even reiterated that commitment in Washington, DC in July when he spoke to an utterly sycophantic Congress that stood to applaud Netanyahu over 57 times during a speech that only lasted one hour. Yet the message the prime minister has made to the international community rings hollow as the Netanyahu government has continued to normalize rhetoric domestically in Israel advocating for the expansion of illegal settlements into Palestinian territories. Likud sanctioning Nachala's latest event aimed at organizing those future illegal settlements in Gaza illustrates how the response to October 7th has become less to do with defeating Hamas and more to do with using the war as a political vehicle to advance an ulterior motive aimed at achieving the vision for Greater Israel.