Minister of Settlements and National Missions Orit Strock revealed Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seriously considered a request to hold this year’s 8 Elul prayer inside the Gaza Strip, but ultimately decided not to approve it.
Strock made the remarks during a prayer service and fast held at Migdal Kissufim, overlooking Gaza, marking 21 years since the burning of the synagogues in Gush Katif. The event was organized by the Gush Katif Residents’ Headquarters and Prof. Yoel Elitzur and was attended by rabbis and public figures.
According to Strock, about two weeks ago, following a meeting of the Security Cabinet, she handed Netanyahu a letter signed by 20 senior Religious Zionist rabbis requesting that this year’s 8 Elul prayer be held inside Gaza.
“I submitted to the Prime Minister a letter signed by 20 senior Religious Zionist rabbis asking to hold this year’s 8 Elul prayer inside Gaza," Strock said. “The Prime Minister seriously considered the request, but ultimately, to my great disappointment, decided not to approve it."
Strock read from the rabbis’ letter, which explained that 8 Elul was designated as a day of fasting and prayer not to commemorate the date of the expulsion from Gush Katif, but to recall the biblical warning against “despising the Land of Israel" and to emphasize the message that “Gaza is ours."
“We will not forget, and we will not allow anyone to make us forget, that Gaza is ours and ours alone," Strock declared. “Gaza belongs to the Jewish people, and the new Gaza will be rebuilt for its true sons-the sons of the Jewish people."
Concluding her remarks, Strock said that Israel is currently undergoing a “process of national repentance" and expressed hope that Jewish communities will once again be established in Gaza.
“We are returning to the parts of the Land that we abandoned and forsook," she said. “We did it in northern Samaria, and we will do it here as well, in Gaza."