Ben-Gvir has called for the expulsion of Gaza’s inhabitants and their replacement by Jewish Israelis settlers [Getty/archive photo]
Extremist Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir has renewed his calls for the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, saying they should be replaced with Israeli Jewish settlers.
The former national security minister and head of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party said that Gaza should be emptied of its inhabitants during a rally in Jerusalem on Thursday night.
Ben-Gvir called for “the resettlement of Jews in the Gaza Strip,” according to the Haaretz newspaper. He has a history of violent incitement against the Palestinians.
“Today, everyone knows that I was right about encouraging migration, and today the president of the most powerful country in the world says that,” Ben Gvir said, referring to US President Donald Trump.
Trump has suggested permanently moving the Palestinians out of war-torn Gaza and relocating them possibly to neighbouring Egypt or Jordan, and the US taking control of the coastal enclave and developing it.
The shock proposal has been widely condemned by Arab states and governments worldwide as an attempt to ethnically cleanse Gaza, and Egypt is working on a counterplan to Trump’s.
Israel’s far-right has welcomed the plan, and settler groups have been eyeing the Palestinian territory.
But recently Trump said he would not force but instead “recommend” his takeover plan for future Gaza, saying it “really works”.
Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman said during the Thursday night Jerusalem rally that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “working to promote historic immigration from Gaza with President Trump”.
“Thank God we have a government that is committed to that, the only solution for Gaza is full transfer, we will return to Gush Katif,” she said, referring to a bloc of 17 Israeli settlements that existed in the southern Gaza Strip before Israel withdrew from there in 2005.
“There is no other solution, but [Israeli] sovereignty and land inheritance in Gaza, Jenin and Tulkarm,” she claimed.
Jenin and Tulkarm are two cities in the occupied West Bank that have witnessed a weeks-long Israeli military operation that has left dozens of Palestinians killed and injured, with over 40,000 displaced.
Israel began its assault in Jenin days after the 19 January Gaza ceasefire began. It has gradually spread to other towns and refugee camps in the northern West Bank.
