On the Subtle Settlement and Annexation Plans for Gaza

Author: أنطوان شلحت

Opposing voices in Israel have been warning for months that Netanyahu's government harbors plans for annexation and settlement concerning the Gaza Strip as soon as the war ends. The newspaper Haaretz (29/7/2025) revealed that following Netanyahu's decision to increase humanitarian aid to the strip, opposed by the Religious Zionism party led by Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a promise was made to him to annex areas of the strip to Israel in order to entice him to remain within the ruling coalition.

In fact, the idea of Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip has been normalized for a long time, and the identity of those leading this idea does not solely belong to the Religious Zionism movement, but extends to the ruling Likud party and other right-wing Israeli parties. While such settlement rhetoric was fraught with risks before the war on Gaza, it has now become "legitimate" and could become feasible. This is also happening for other ideas concerning Gaza, such as reinstating Israeli military rule, and for Lebanon, like reoccupying the "security zone".

All of this is accompanied by the following: leaders of the settlement movement justify their pursuit with security claims; Smotrich has previously stated that wherever there are settlements, there will be soldiers, "and thus, security will prevail there." However, the security justification is merely a mechanism to normalize the idea. Additionally, they clarify that settlement is conditional upon transfer, or what is euphemistically referred to as "encouraging immigration", which some consider to be the "most ethical solution". Minister May Golan from the Likud party has previously stated that "those who attempted to cause us a second Holocaust must be repaid with a new Nakba", leading some to conclude that the goal is not merely to "encourage immigration" but also to expel millions of people.

According to accumulated literature, this new settlement movement represents the idea of "Greater Israel free of Arabs, from the river to the sea". According to reports in the Israeli media, settlement in the strip requires a fundamental condition, defined by Daniela Weiss, described as the "priestess" of settlement in "Greater Israel", which is "Gaza free of Arabs". Smotrich himself has previously stated: "If only two hundred thousand Palestinians remain in Gaza instead of two million, everything will be easier".

Opponents of all these movements do not miss the opportunity to point out that the dream of "Greater Israel free of Arabs" has always accompanied the Zionist movement in all its forms since its inception. One even chose to remind us that this began with the phrase "A people without land to a land without people," which imagines a vacant land waiting for Jewish pioneers to cultivate it, reclaim barren lands, and drain swamps. This dream was implemented during the Nakba of 1948 and after the 1967 war. Later on, a legitimate party in the Knesset called for transfer, led by a retired general financed by millions of dollars from various Israeli governments.

At this point, it is important to point out two issues. The first is that the vision expressed by Smotrich and other leaders of the extreme Israeli right, advocating for the occupation and further destruction of Gaza and the displacement of its population, enjoys the support of more than half of the Jewish population in Israel, according to a public opinion poll conducted by Tel Aviv University, which makes the ongoing war in Israel a "mere fact of life", as described by the head of the "National Security Policies Program" at the National Security Research Institute, former Knesset member Ofer Shelah, noting that the Israeli army is unofficially becoming a model of "paid compulsory recruitment", as conscripted soldiers are not discharged but are directly transferred to regular service, and those deemed economically viable go into the reserves, with the defense budget increasing by a decision of 42 billion shekels (i.e., two-thirds of the original defense budget for 2023, without taking into account American aid).

The second issue is that the opposition in Israel does not fundamentally oppose this vision but rather from the standpoint that it is "not realistic" (!).