A camp of Jewish settlers in front of Gaza calls for annexation of the enclave and expulsion of Palestinians International

For the half a thousand Jews of all ages camped at the gates of Gaza, international law means nothing compared to God’s law, which they consider part of their Promised Land. They claim their right to occupy the strip and even expel its residents with supremacist discourse. He has the support of the Israeli government. The ultranationalist ministers of national security and finance, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, respectively, who are also residents, visited the camp on Monday afternoon.

Those attending events in support of the Jewish occupation of the Strip receive military and police protection. “In less than a year, you will see how Jews come to Gaza and how Arabs disappear,” says Daniela Weiss, 79, the Israeli settler movement’s best-known leader, amid threats and triumphalism. Tents set up about 3.5 kilometers from the border fence with Gaza. Hundreds of Gazans led by the Hamas militia attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, carrying out the worst massacre in the country’s history, killing 1,200 people, according to official figures.

According to Weiss, that day, residents of Gaza lost the right to live there, having been banned by Canada last June for “facilitating, supporting or financing” the violence of Jewish radicals against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. The ban was imposed. His speech, which has been widely known and broadcast for decades, heightened the expectations of attendees. Some are among the 700 families who have signed up to settle in the Palestinian Mediterranean Enclave. In recent months, housing developments have also been designed.

From the campsite, while the sounds of Israeli artillery explosions are heard from time to time, you can see the buildings of the Strip, which have been the target of bombing for more than a year. These days, the Israeli Army is adopting a strict aggressive stance, especially in the northern areas. At least 32 people have been killed in bombings in Gaza this Monday, including at a UN school where hundreds of displaced civilians are taking shelter.

“The land of Israel belongs only to the Israeli people,” says Osher Shekalim, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Despite the images and data released by the United Nations, it considers the humanitarian disaster in Gaza caused by attacks by Israeli occupation troops as a “lie”. He added, “I hope the Palestinians disappear.”

During this conflict, Daniela Weiss has also organized boat trips along the coast of the Strip among her followers to observe the devastation of the war. “I pray that I will soon be able to enjoy the Gaza coast,” he says, speaking candidly about the ethnic cleansing of the strip. Nearby, young children participate in craft or pet workshops and eat popcorn, hot dogs and cotton candy given to them at different stands.

Some of the people taking part in the initiative promoted by far-right and ultranationalist groups are former residents of the Strip, which housed Jewish settlements until 2005, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the evacuation of civilians and soldiers. Since then, there have been many wars in that landscape, but none like the current one, which has killed more than 42,500 Palestinians. Now, some ultranationalists want to return to the enclave, like 78-year-old Avi Farhan, who dances in a circle to the beat of the music with an Israeli flag and a photo of him in front of his home in the Gush settlements. Kativ. Minister Ben Gvir joined the improvised dance floor shortly afterwards.

Elihayu Binyamin, 38, a father of five and another who lived in Gaza between 2003 and 2005, wants to return and settle there with his family. The departure from the Strip “was a crime,” he believes, and “it should never have happened” because “from there, problems came, especially on October 7,” he confirms. Like many present, he carries a gun on his belt. Therefore, in addition to restarting settlements, “we have to send them (Palestinians from Gaza) out, because that’s what they really want.” Give them money and let them go to other parts of the world,” he added. His vision of Israel, which would also include Palestine and the territories of Lebanon, Syria and Egypt, does not allow for the recognition of equal rights for Arabs living under the Jewish state.

“I think we will be among the second wave of families,” comments Shira Leff Kreitman, 31, who came from the United States and is the mother of three children, without hesitation. He will even settle in a caravan in Gaza and assures through his acquaintances, who are military personnel, that he knows well what the Palestinian enclave is like, although he has never been there.

Malkiel Barhai, 35, a repeatedly evicted resident of Ivitar, a controversial settlement in the northern West Bank where 16 families live, comes to the camp to show his support. Wearing a cowboy hat, Barhai understands that the troops have not completely liberated Gaza from “terrorists”, so there is something to be expected. They believe that after the Jews left in 2005, they lost the opportunity to live together and that everything has changed since October 7 and they should leave. For them, the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank are as Israeli as the city of Tel Aviv. This man also protects Jewish settlements in Lebanon in areas where the army is advancing.

Lior Amihai, director of the Israeli NGO Peace Now, has written a letter to the head of the armed forces warning him about the threat he considers to be posed by far-right settler initiatives and the support they receive from ministers Is. While hundreds of Hamas MPs remain hostage.

Weiss claims they have already built more than 330 settlements in the Jewish state-held Syrian territory “Judea and Samaria (as Israel refers to the West Bank) and the Golan Heights”. It is this experience on the basis of which they wish to “do the same here in Gaza” (…). Arabs have lost their right to live in this sacred place,” he insists. And for this, he admits, he has political support. She says that in recent months friends have called her to reserve plots for them on the beach.

Eliyahu Binyamin, like many of those present, constantly fills his speech with religious references and is convinced that “the people of Israel should not vote”, because God is “the only leader” who must be obeyed. For him, exercising the right to vote is an obligatory process, but he distrusts politicians and, if there is an alternative he can support, he does not hesitate to defend the extreme right of Ben Gvir and Smotrich. Are. When asked about the effects of Israeli attacks in the Strip, he also defended that the army is being “compassionate” by informing the population about the bombings. Israel has at times forced thousands of people to move from one end of the Strip to the other between attacks. Many of his children kept walking around him during the interview. In the end no one was left. “They’re already inside Gaza,” he jokes.