Gaza resettlement    

About 2,000 people gathered in Jerusalem for a conference calling for the resettlement of Gaza. This is an attempt to resettle Israelis in Gaza after Jewish settlers were removed by then Prime Minister Sharon in 2005. Fifteen Knesset members attended including 11 cabinet ministers and several members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Other attendees included settler radicals, some rabbis, and families of soldiers fighting in Gaza.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, National Security minister, stated that to avoid another October 7th disaster we need to move settlers in, voluntarily get some Palestinians to leave, and impose death sentences on terrorists (Israel has no capital punishment penalty). Ben-Gvir wants other countries to pay for the cost of Gazans resettling in other countries. It is extremely dubious if any countries would sign up to assist an Israeli de facto annexation of Gaza.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Jewish children forced out from Gaza in 2005 must return as settlers for security reasons.

One supporter at the meeting stated it might mean displacing some of the strip’s 2.1 million Palestinian residents — a prospect, she said, that is “too bad for them.”   Unfortunately, this is not an insignificant group. About 38% of Israelis support resettlement of Jews into Gaza.

The most salient point about the speeches and the conference is the unstated belief that the Palestinians will be treated as refuse to be disposed of, “just get them out of our way”. If they could be killed with no international complications, that would be fine. If not, just dump them in Sinai. There is not much point in asking the conference attendees if they have any sympathy, any feeling, or any rachmanos on the Gazan women and children killed. It is dubious if they could even understand the question. The political far-right, many settlers, and some rabbis have dehumanized millions of people. The dehumanization on the West Bank is carried out by some extremist settlers who organize pogroms against some local Arab villages. Dehumanization is a prelude to mistreatment, persecution, and murder.  The rabbis and orthodox jews participating in this are a disgrace to Judaism.