Israel’s ‘strategy’ of ethnic cleansing in Gaza

Under the slogan “Gaza is Ours, Forever,” a large number of Israeli extremists and right-wing politicians met in the settlement of Be’eri, near the Gaza border, on Oct. 20-21.

The group represented a “who’s who” of the Israeli right, far right, and ultranationalists. They included Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir, May Golan, and Bezalel Smotrich, as well as 10 MKs of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

The event, entitled “Preparing to Settle Gaza,” was organized by one of Israel’s most extreme settler movements, Nachala, led by the notorious Daniella Weiss. 

To appreciate how extreme this 79-year-old settler is, consider this: On June 27, the Canadian government, though one of the most stalwart supporters of Netanyahu and his wars, imposed sanctions on Weiss, due to her “role in facilitating acts of violence by Israeli extremist settlers against Palestinian civilians.”

The hate-filled conference, however, was but a culmination of a year-long effort to build a case of why Israel should ethnically cleanse Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and re-establish illegal settlements. 

The story, however, does not start on Oct. 7. In 2005, Israel decided to redeploy its forces out of the tiny coastal region. That was the start of the hermetic Israeli siege on the enclave, which led to multiple wars and, ultimately, the Oct. 7 events and the ongoing genocide.

Extremists are now effectively the decision-makers

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

Although the number of Jewish settlers forced to leave the dismantled 15 illegal settlements was fairly small — 8,500 — the sense of betrayal felt by the settlers created deep divisions throughout Israeli society.

Chaotic scenes of settlers being forcefully removed from the Gush Katif settlements bloc in Gaza created a national crisis in Israel, and was compared to the forceful evacuation of the illegal Sinai settlement of Yamit, which Israel dismantled in April 1982 as part of a previous agreement with Egypt. But why the crisis?

Israel is a settler-colonial society, which has linked its colonial expansion to religious diktats and prophecies. So, the forced departure from Gaza, to most of these settlers, must have appeared to represent both national treason and a sacrilegious act. 

This is why resettling Gaza became the immediate rallying cry for Israeli settlers. Compared with their limited political share of power during the redeployment of 2005, current extremists are now effectively the decision-makers. 

While the army remains unclear regarding its strategic objectives in Gaza, the settlers have always been aware of the nature of their mission: the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from Gaza and the rebuilding of the settlements.

Thus, quickly, the likes of Weiss and many of her supporters began calling on Israelis to join the recolonization campaign. “Register, register, you’ll be in Gaza,” Weiss told an audience of supporters last March, joyfully declaring that 500 families had already signed up, according to a CNN report. 

Weiss and Nachala are not acting independently from the overall objective of the country’s leading politicians. For example, on the first day of the war, Oct. 7, 2023, Netanyahu made his intentions clear: “I say to the residents of Gaza: Leave now, because we will operate forcefully everywhere.”

On Oct. 17, a position paper introduced by the Israeli Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy called for the “relocation and final settlement of the entire Gaza population.”

The report saw in the war “a unique and rare opportunity to evacuate the whole Gaza Strip” into the Sinai desert. Later that same month, the Israeli intelligence ministry itself became involved, with the Israeli news outlet Calcalist publishing a document “recommend(ing) the transfer of Gaza residents to Sinai.”

The settlers are already aware of the challenge at hand

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

On Nov. 14, Smotrich spoke of “voluntary migration.” In December, media reports said that Netanyahu had told Likud party members that Israel’s real challenge is finding “countries that are willing to absorb them,” meaning the people of Gaza. 

Conferences began to be organized to gather support around the idea of ethnically cleansing Palestinians. The first major forum was held by a coalition of settler movements last December. “A house on the beach is not a dream,” an advertisement for the gathering proclaimed, referring to the Gaza beach.

Even Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, jumped at the opportunity. In March, he spoke of Gaza’s “very valuable … waterfront property,” which required Israel to remove the civilians and “clean up the Strip.”

The so-called “generals’ plan” aimed at the extermination and ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza is but the military component of the settlers’ vision, that of “Gaza is ours, forever.”

But if Israel has failed to sustain its settlements in the rebellious enclave under more manageable circumstances in the past, will it succeed now?

The settlers are already aware of the challenge at hand. This is why they constantly link their colonization of Gaza with the ethnic cleansing of its Palestinian inhabitants. 

Israel’s success and failure, however, will ultimately be determined by this maxim: As long as the Palestinian people are fighting back, Weiss and her fellow extremists will not find safety in Gaza.

Indeed, the native population of Gaza has subsisted in that historical land for thousands of years. If genocide has not forced them off their land, nothing else will.

• Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and author. He is editor of The Palestine Chronicle and nonresident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappe, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out.” X: @RamzyBaroud