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The right-wing extremist Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the “Victory Conference” in Jerusalem on January 28th
Photo: Debbie Hill / UPI Photo / IMAGO
Participants at a conference in Jerusalem called for Israeli repopulation of the Gaza Strip on Sunday. According to media reports, these included several Israeli ministers, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing conservative ruling party Likud.
At the “Victory Conference,” the right-wing extremist Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for not only a return of Israeli settlers to the coastal strip but also to “encourage an exodus (of Palestinians).” Only this could prevent another massacre like the one on October 7th, he argued. Spectators held a banner that read: "Only a transfer will bring peace."
Netanyahu allegedly considers the conference to be “harmful”
Netanyahu had described calls for the repopulation of the Gaza Strip as unrealistic. The news site ynet reported, citing a confidant of Netanyahu, that the head of government considered the conference to be “harmful.”
Israeli opposition leader Jair Lapid wrote on the X platform, formerly Twitter, on Sunday evening: "The most damaging government in the history of the country has reached a new low this evening." was at the center of the national camp and is now being dragged along helplessly by radicals."
In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and evacuated more than 20 Israeli settlements. For the United Nations, the Gaza Strip remains Israeli-occupied territory because it controls all entrances except for one border crossing. Israel maintains that the occupation ended with the withdrawal in 2005.
In 2007, the Islamist Hamas seized sole control of the Mediterranean coastal area after a bloody battle with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah organization. The two neighboring countries, Israel and Egypt, then tightened a blockade. Around 2.2 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip.
ktz/dpa