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Israel’s Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is party leader of the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit. The picture was taken on New Year’s Eve.
1 / 2Photo: Abir Sultan/AP/TT
Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wants Gazans to be “encouraged to emigrate to other countries” and for Israeli settlers to return to the strip.
The statement follows Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s comment on New Year’s Eve that an Israeli “civilian presence” is needed in Gaza after the war.
– We must promote a solution to encourage the residents of Gaza to emigrate, says Itamar Ben-Gvir on New Year’s Day, while the war between Israel and terrorist-branded Hamas continues.
Israel withdrew its forces and vacated its settlements in Gaza in 2005, having occupied the area since the 1967 Six-Day War, but continued to control Gaza’s borders and airspace thereafter.
Ben-Gvir, who leads the ultra-nationalist party Otzma Yehudit (in Swedish roughly “Jewish power”), further says that it is a “correct, fair, moral and humane solution” for Palestinians to emigrate and to allow Israeli settlers in Gaza.
The statement echoes that of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on New Year’s Eve, when Smotrich said Palestinians should be “encouraged” to leave Gaza while “we need a civilian presence” for Israel to control the area militarily for a longer period of time. Smotrich is the leader of the ultra-nationalist party group Religious Zionism.
Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich live in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The settlements are against international law.
The government of Israel led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not officially proposed to forcibly relocate Gazans or to allow Israeli settlements in Gaza.