The Lobby for the Renewal of Jewish Settlement in the Gaza Strip met in the Knesset on Sunday. The meeting was initiated by lobby chairs MK Limor Son Har-Melech and MK Tzvi Sukkot, in partnership with the Nachala settlement movement.
The meeting focused on the launch of so-called “Garinei Nachal” (military youth communities) in the Gaza Strip, and followed recent statements by Defense Minister Israel Katz, who has said several times that Israel will establish such communities in the northern Gaza Strip.
The conference took place as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to the United States and was intended to strengthen his diplomatic position vis-à-vis the American administration regarding Israel’s security and future.
The event was attended by bereaved families, dozens of soldiers, wounded veterans and reservists, rabbis, and representatives of the Nachala movement.
Deputy Knesset Speaker and chair of the Lobby for the Renewal of Jewish Settlement in the Gaza Strip, MK Limor Son Har-Melech, said, “A month ago, I submitted a request to Defense Minister Israel Katz for approval to hold a flag-raising event in Nisanit. The Defense Minister told me: ‘I’m establishing military youth groups there much faster than you imagine.’ Fortunately, last week we all heard this announcement publicly. This is the right direction - the security and moral approach required at this time. Establishing military youth groups is the first and necessary step toward solidifying our presence on the ground.”
MK Tzvi Sukkot added, “When there are no Jews - there are attacks. That’s how it works, and therefore the solution is taking over, encouraging emigration, and settlement. The original sin that led to the terrible disaster of October 7 was the evacuation and expulsion of Jews from the Gaza Strip, and as a state we must correct that. In Gaza, the overwhelming majority are haters of Israel. They will enslave themselves and their children in order to destroy us.”
Speaking to Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, Lital Slonim of the Nachala movement said that Sunday’s meeting was “the first step” in establishing Garinei Nachal.
“We brought here soldiers that fought in Gaza and families of soldiers that died in this war and they all announced, very clearly, that they are ready for this important mission: To move, to start those communities in the north of Gaza and they are ready immediately to go,” said Slonim.
Daniella Weiss from Nachala added, “That was what was in the air the entire meeting, that everybody was ready to move right away. At a certain point, it started like a competition between who will be first.”
“Brave soldiers came here and they said, ‘On the 7th of October, we came to fight and now we are ready to move and live there,” said Slonim.
Weiss continued, “The meaning of a Nachal community is a combination. The ideal combination between security, defense and normal civil life of community. It only makes sense and so it happened in more than 200 communities in Israel, along the border, in the Galilee, in Shomron, in Judea, that it started as a community that is connected to the army, but soon became a regular community, a regular settlement or town. So we repeated this idea here today in connection with Gaza.”
“Everybody knows, I believe that Trump will also understand, that we are going to stay in Gaza forever. Gaza does not belong to the people who now threaten us all the time. Gaza belongs to the people of Israel, and today was a historical moment.”