THE COLONIZATION OF GAZA, AN ISRAELI OBJECTIVE

When the State of Israel was born in 1947 by a decision of the United Nations, Gaza was already a problem for the Jews, to such an extent that during the first years, in Tel Aviv it was said that the best thing that could happen was that the Palestinian enclave “would disappear and sink under the sea”.

The situation has changed completely since Israel began its war in Gaza after the terrorist act committed by Hamas on October 7, 2003. The Israeli government headed by Netanyahu has prepared a plan for colonization of the territory, although it has not officially recognized it. However, this plan exists and would place Gaza on the same line as that of the West Bank.

Netanyahu's position is not shared by members of his government, nor by public opinion in the Hebrew state. The United Nations, the US and the European Union (EU) all argue that when the war is over, Gaza should be governed solely by the Palestinians.

There are several options: Gaza would be governed by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) although President Mahmoud Abbass has lost much of his popularity since the war began. Another option is a temporary government in which the IDF army would participate, before handing over all power to the Palestinians.

Netanyahu has a project that, if he were to launch it, would trigger a wave of protests internationally. The Jewish prime minister wants to assimilate Gaza into the West Bank and is even willing to create the first settler settlements in the enclave, believing that Hamas has ceased to be a threat to the settlements. This is a vision that is not at all shared in the West.

A former chief of staff and member of the Israeli war cabinet, Gadi Eisenkot, has delivered a damning indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In an interview with an Israeli television channel, the former official also revealed the “hidden” objectives of the war in Gaza, including the establishment of Jewish colonies in the Palestinian enclave.

Since the beginning of the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has regularly repeated: Israel has no intention of recolonizing Gaza. “However, what is observed on the ground is different,” notes Tomer Persico, an Israeli researcher at Reichmann University in Herzliya.

There is indeed a desire by some members of Netanyahu's government to settle Jews in Gaza. Israel believes that international law allows it to create settlements on land abandoned by Palestinian civilians. But this is a complete lie, because if the Palestinians have had to leave their homes it is because the Jewish army has forced them to do so; it has banished them from one place to another in the enclave, claiming that they were going to "protected zones" that were also bombed shortly afterwards. Netanyahu's hypocrisy and lies are so obvious that not even Washington's complicity can hide them.

It should not be forgotten that the same international law authorizes Palestinian families who left their homes to return to them at the end of the war. Israel cannot manipulate the facts but it cannot hide the fact that they are an obvious reality. Creating Jewish settlements in Gaza would represent an illegal action since it would occur in the context of the genocide that still exists in the enclave.

According to Gadi Eisenkot, "I really fear that all this is aimed at creating Israeli Jewish settlements in the future [in northern Gaza]. I don't know if I could still live in Israel, if my country, instead of reducing the occupation, decides instead to strengthen the occupation of Palestine. This is an atrocity and I hope it doesn't happen."

(picture: Gadi Eisenkot)