Day: January 6, 2024

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

An Israeli Minister has called for the return of settlers to Gaza and said Palestinians should be encouraged to leave, a day after similar remarks by another far-right politician.

“We must promote a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza’s residents,” Israel’s firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said as war with Hamas rages on.

Israel unilaterally withdrew the last of its troops and settlers in 2005, ending a presence inside Gaza that began in 1967 but maintaining near complete control over the territory’s borders.

The government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not officially suggested it has any plans to evict Gazans or to send Jewish settlers back to the territory. But Mr. Ben Gvir argued the departure of Palestinians and re-establishment of settlements “is a correct, just, moral, and humane solution”.

“This is an opportunity to develop a project to encourage Gaza’s residents to emigrate to countries around the world,” he told a meeting of his ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit, or “Jewish Power”, party.

Mr. Ben Gvir’s comment came the day after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also called for the return of settlers to Gaza, equally saying Israel should “encourage” the territory’s approximately 2.4 million Palestinians to leave.

The U.S. and France on Tuesday denounced the comments.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington “rejects recent statements from Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza.”

“We call on Israel to refrain from such provocative declarations, which are irresponsible and fuel tensions,” French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.