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Israeli Ministers at the 2024 "Resettle Gaza" Conference
Itamar Ben Gvir and other Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling to settle or annex Gaza, southern Lebanon, or Syrian land.
Israeli Cabinet Members Join Event Calling for Ethnic Cleansing & Resettlement of Gaza · Democracy Now! · uploaded 2024-01-31 · 14:39
Original: youtube.com/watch?v=7J0_J3Qy6YY · IPFS QmctJvoQ6sBehTRqX1TR6vywDB7jMDjczAZvrT6FvTFwHk
What this video is evidence for
On January 28, 2024, thousands of Israelis filled a Jerusalem convention hall for a conference titled "Settlement Brings Security and Victory." It was organized by the settler group Nachala and called for rebuilding Jewish settlements in Gaza. According to Israeli journalist Oren Ziv of +972 Magazine, who covered it for this Democracy Now! segment, 11 cabinet ministers and 15 members of the Knesset attended, from four of the five parties in Netanyahu's coalition. At the entrance hung a large map of planned Gaza settlements, "some of them literally on top of Palestinian villages and towns."
On camera at the conference:
- Itamar Ben Gvir, then National Security Minister: "If you don't want another 7th of October, you have to return home to control the territory."
- Bezalel Smotrich, Finance Minister: "We are settling our land from width to length, controlling it... Without settlement, there is no security."
Speakers also promoted the "voluntary emigration" of Palestinians from Gaza. Critics, including the segment's Palestinian guest Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, call that ethnic cleansing. This is the Greater Israel idea in practice: senior ministers publicly calling to take and settle territory beyond Israel's recognized borders.
Where this fits: see Greater Israel for the full explanation and sources.
Transcript
Machine transcription (apple-speechanalyzer) of the full 00:14:39. It can mishear names and words, so check exact wording against the video before quoting it.
This is Democracy Now, DemocracyNow.org, the Warren Peace Report. I am Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Thousands of Israelis gathered in Jerusalem Sunday for a major conference calling for Palestinians to be removed from Gaza in order to rebuild Jewish settlements. The conference, organized by the settler group, the Hala, was dubbed Settlement Brings Security and Victory, was attended by almost a third of the Israeli cabinet.
Among the most high profile speakers, was Israel's public security minister, Itamar Ben Gavir. Today, everyone already understands that fleeing brings war, and that if you don't want another 7th of October, you have to return home to control the territory. Speakers at the conference called for the Israeli settlement of Gaza, and the continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank, another prominent speaker on Sunday's conference, was Israel's finance minister, Bezelal Smotrek. We are settling our land from width to length, controlling it and fighting terror always, and bringing, with God's help, security to all of Israel. You know what the answer is.
Without settlement, there is no security. For more, we go to Tel Aviv, where we're joined by Oranziv, a reporter and photographer for plus 972 magazine, who covered the settler conference in Jerusalem on Sunday. His piece is headlined, Turning Zaitun into Shavat Zion. Israeli Summit envisions Gaza resettlement. Staying with us is Dr.
Mustapha Barguti, speaking to us from Ramala. Orin, why don't you start off by just describing this conference, the significance of it, and what shocked you most as you covered it. Thank you for having me, first of all, I have to say, this is the last event in a series of events and protests of the settler movement, calling to what they say is going back to Gaza, returning to the settlements that were evicted by Israel in the 2005 disengagement. This event was significant because thousands of people took part in 18 West Jerusalem. They gather in a big hole.
I could say half of the participants were youth or college students, and you had mostly religious right wing settlers. There, at the entrance, you had a big map, a huge map, showing the different settlements, they plan to establish in the Gaza strip. Some of them literally on top of Palestinian villages and towns that exist, and, of course, unfortunately were destroyed by the Israeli aggression in the recent months. Inside the hall, we had speeches of, as you said, ministers, parliament members, four out of five, of the representative of four out of five of the parties that are in the coalition of Nathaniel's government, were there 11 ministers and 15 parliament members, so big support from the government, and also settlers, leaders and activists. For me, personally, the most shocking thing was not only the plan to establish the settlement, but in fact, the people there were dancing and singing, being happy and joyful.
And this is important to understand that in the Israeli, public atmosphere, this is something you barely see in the attack of 7 of October. You don't see public events where people are joyful, not because, you know, most of the Israeli public ignore the horrific reality in Gaza, but because of the war, because of the attack of 7 October, because Israeli soldiers are being killed every day in the war. You don't see many of those events, and it shocked even mainstream Israelis to see ministers, and people who take those decisions regarding their dancing, was very shocking for many people. And I think this is because while the vest, or big parts of the Israeli public is still in shock, the settler movements see this war as an opportunity to expand their plans to settle in Gaza. And, Lauren, I wanted to ask you, apparently, the British Foreign Minister David Cameron, I think, well, some reports are saying, reacting to this conference over the weekend, reaffirmed Britain's position that there must be a two state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
I'm wondering, your thoughts about how some of these Western countries continue to support the war in Gaza and while maintaining that a two state solution that they know the Israeli government has made clear, it has no intention of following through on. Yes, I think this conference made it very clear, because ahead of the hearing in the Hug, the ICJ hearing, official Israel, Netanyo and other members of the, more the center, kind of part of the government, try to portray a picture that Israel will not say in Gaza, will not set together this temporary war. And this event, and the participant of senior members of the government, makes it very clear that, A, they don't want any two stay solution, but this we've seen over the years, but more importantly, that they don't care about the international law, they don't care about the ICJ procedure, it doesn't threaten them to continue to express those opinions. One could think that after ministers, and the prime minister itself were quoted in the South African appeal to the court, this were the evidence, actually, what the easily politician, the genocidal discourse they were promoting in the beginning of the war, one could think they would be a bit more careful, but the opposite. This was not, it's important to mention, this was not only a conference talking about settling in Gaza, but it's very clear, and most of the speakers talked about the, what they call is the, call is the, encouraging immigrational, forcing people from Gaza.
So it's very clear that the settled movement is on the account of the residents of Gaza, Daniela Weiss, one of the settlers leader, who was leading the conference, when we asked her what would happen to the Palestinians, if your plans come true, she said they would leave, they would have to leave. We don't give them food, we don't give them water, she was talking about the siege, and she said they would leave, they would have to spend around the world. Also, Minister Benville, who was a bit more careful in his language, said we have to encourage immigration from Gaza. So this was a consensus in the conference. Erin, we just played a clip of Bezelal Smotrich, who's a cabinet member.
I'm looking at the Times of Israel article that says, from a few years ago, that the former Shinbet deputy chief, Yitzrahilan, he was the former deputy head of Shinbet Security Service, reportedly told a political gathering that Smotrich was a Jewish terrorist, who planned to blow up cars on a major highway during the 2005 G disengagement when the Israeli settlers were forced out by Israel of Gaza. Can you talk about the significance of this today, what, almost 20 years later? Who Smotrich is, he was held for three weeks, questioned by Shimbet, ultimately wasn't charged. Apparently, they didn't want to endanger their sources, who talked about him being found with massive amounts of gasoline. Yes, this is true.
Smotch was a security prisoner. He was suspected in that, but not convict, but this shows us, together with Bengvir, that I personally documented and saw him attacking Palestinian attacking Israeli left him, activists, along the years before he became a parliament member and a minister. So these are its people that are well known from the right wing extreme activities. And unfortunately, today, they decide the policies, they lead Israel, and I think, this is why also Netaniao, and kind of the more center right part of the government, cannot say, this is not official Israel, this is not official line, because we've seen it in Yao ahead of the ICJ, and we've seen other speakers of Israel saying, well, there are ministers, there are parliament members, but they're not in the war cabinet, they don't take the decision. This is, of course, just rhetoric to protect Israel from being accountable.
I think when we see such a big, such a big number of ministers, senior ministers, and parliament members taking part in this conference that is callingly open to transfer to displace Palestinians from Gaza. And maybe more important, I think, this discourse, it's important to say, also encouraged soldiers on the ground, right wing soldiers, settlers, soldiers, or just ordinary soldiers, that hear this rhetoric, on Israeli, mainstream media, on social media, it encouraged them to carry out war crimes. The war itself is horrific enough, but I'm afraid that this rhetoric, by members of the government, in character, gives the feeling to the soldiers on the ground, they can do anything, because if Israel, according to this conference, will eventually control the Gaza strip, it means soldiers on the ground, and we've seen that on TikTok, on Instagram, social media, can do whatever they want, because it belongs to Israel, so they can explode houses, they can vandalize, they can steal property, they can do whatever because this, eventually, will be Israeli property. I'd like to bring Dr. Mustafa Barguti back into the conversation.
Doctor, your reaction to this conference and to this, uh, uh, these post invasion, uh, plans of the, uh, of the Israeli, of a good portion of the Israeli government. The Bingvir and Smotrich are known to be a fascist, of course, and sometimes they are described as psychopaths, but they are not really only psychopaths. They are the ones who are deciding the Israeli government policy. And none of their statements, fascist statements was ever negated by Nathaniel, the Prime Minister of Israel. And these guys are representing what can be called Jewish religious extreme fundamentalism, combined with Jewish supremacy thinking.
And they believe that the whole of the land of Palestine and Jordan as well, and parts of Saudi Arabia and Syria are supposed to be Jewish land. And these guys are practically repeating confirming, actually, what had happened in 1948. When Israel, as a settler, colonial project, committed, uh, 50 massacres against Palestinians, and evicted, and effected people from 520 communities, and then erased them to the ground. They want to repeat what Israel did in 1948. Another Nakba.
Uh, against Palestinian people. And they are speaking openly about uh, newer crimes simultaneously. The war crime of ethnic lensing, the war crime of collective punishment, and the war crime of genocide. They want to effect everybody from Gaza. And that's, by the way, what Natanijo himself called for in the very 1st days of this war.
That's what Galant called for, when he said, that Palestinians are human animals and should be treated as such, and what you've seen in this confidence. This is not just a bunch of extremists. It's the government. The Israeli government, 12 ministers of the Israeli government attended that meeting and supported it. 15 members of the Israeli parliament.
attended it. So you are talking here practically about the official Israeli policy, which is directed at ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and then settlements not only in Gaza. As a matter of fact, also in the West Bank, we are now subject to settler terror, settler terror, which has evicted already, 30 Palestinian communities from their land from their homes in the West Bank. 60% of the West Bank is now practically forbidden for Palestinians, and is allocated to the Israeli settlers. And we don't have to go far.
All we need, all you need to do is to show the map that Nathaniel has shown in the United States or in the United Nations, 2 weeks before the war in Gaza. He showed the map of Israel, including the annexation of all of the West Bank. All of Gaza Strip, and all of the Golan Heights, what everybody must understand that this is the Israeli official government policy. And that's why it has to be punished, that's how, that's why it has to be sanctioned, and that's why it has to be exposed, and Israel cannot be allowed to continue to be absolutely unaccountable to international law and absolutely imputative to international law. I want to thank you both for being with us, Mustafa Barguti, Palestinian physician, activist and politician.
We also want to thank Oren Ziv and Tel Aviv, reporter and photojournalist with plus 972 magazine, that does it for our show. We have a job opening at democracy now. Major gifts officer. Learn more at democracy now.org.
Democracy now is produced with my fur, Renee Phelps, I'm Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonzalez.
Last Updated: 2026-09-27