Israeli resettlement leader Daniella Weiss says her organization has significant support in the United States and that wealthy, prominent Jews have donated considerably funds to the effort to resettle Gaza.
In an interview with CNN’s Clarissa Ward, Weiss, 78, spoke about the possibility of resettling Gush Katif – a bloc of 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip that were forcibly evacuated by the IDF in 2005.
Among Israelis, support for the potential resettlement of Gaza has grown by leaps and bounds since October 7 and Weiss is at the center of the movement to do just that.
There are an estimated 700,000 Israelis who want to actively resettle the land that was handed to the Palestinians in 2005 with the hope that the concession might lead to a lasting peace.
Settlement leader Daniella Weiss, 78, says there has been a significant spike in interest for resettling the Gaza Strip for Israel in the wake of October 7, and that financial support has come in from wealthy American Jews
Flyers and pamphlets circulated by Weiss and her supporters say: ‘People of Israel return home,’ meaning to Gaza and present a vision for what the resettled land could look like.
‘We’re here because God promised us this land,’ one settler said.
Others say the Gazan land along the Mediterranean coast could be developed into a new ‘Riviera’ of sorts.
Speaking with Ward, Weiss said she believes the Arab residents of Gaza lost their right to be there on October 7th.
‘No Arab, I’m speaking about more than two million Arabs. They will not stay there. We Jews will be in Gaza,’ she told Ward, who responded by telling her that the sentiment sounded like ‘ethnic cleansing.’
Weiss contested the view, responding that it is the Arabs who ‘want to annihilate the state of Israel’ and cleanse the Jews.
‘Until the 7th of October, I didn’t have plans to return to Gaza … It’s clear, I’m not interested in cleansing,’ she said.
Some 26 percent of Israelis support resettling the Gush Katif area once the war between Israel and Hamas is over.
Among those who support right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that figure rises to 51 percent, according to the Jewish people Police Institute.
Netanyahu, who is currently facing intensifying criticism from the American Democratic party including the president, has said he believes the post-war resettlement of Gaza is an ‘unrealistic goal.’
Weiss says she already has about 500 families who have expressed interest in being part of the effort to do exactly that.
Ward asked Israel’s Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu why he supports the resettlement effort, which is widely viewed as ‘illegal,’ ‘immoral,’ ‘not supported by the majority of Israelis,’ and ‘very harmful to Israel in terms of its international standing.’
Amihai told her that he does not feel it is ‘immoral’ to ‘take land from someone who wants to kill,’ referring to the Palestinian people.
‘Why is it immoral to take my land, which my ancestors lived there, which I have even given up, to someone who slaughters, rapes and murders me? What is more immoral than that?’ he said.
‘No Arab, I’m speaking about more than two million Arabs. They will not stay there. We Jews will be in Gaza,’ Weiss told Ward, who responded by telling her that the sentiment sounded like ‘ethnic cleansing’
Right-wing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the thought of resettling Gush Katif is ‘unrealistic,’ though the idea has grown in popularity since October 7
More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 70,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip since Israel´s war on Hamas began
‘Gaza´s waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods,’ Kushner said in an interview dated February 15
In an interview last month, wealthy, prominent American Jew Jared Kushner shared his thoughts about the value potential of the Gaza Strip – though there is no evidence he is actively supporting Weiss’ mission to resettle.
The interview, which was posted by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, shows Kushner praising the ‘very valuable’ possibilities of Gaza’s ‘waterfront property.’
‘Gaza´s waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods,’ said former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser on the Middle East.
‘If you think about all the money that’s gone into this tunnel network and into all the munitions, if that would have gone into education or innovation, what could have been done?
‘It´s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but I think from Israel´s perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,’ he said.
‘But I don´t think that Israel has stated that they don´t want the people to move back there afterwards,’ he added.
Later, Kushner posted the full interview to his X profile to quell any false narratives that stemmed from the use of selected portions of the interview.
He said that he stood by his remarks and believes ‘the Palestinian people´s lives will improve ONLY when the international community and their citizenry start demanding accountability from their leadership.’
About 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following the militant group´s deadly Oct. 7 attack.
More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 70,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip since Israel´s war on Hamas began.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss a prospective Rafah operation with Biden administration officials.
The agreement to hold such talks came as President Joe Biden and Netanyahu spoke Monday, their first interaction in more than a month, as the divide has grown between allies over the food crisis in Gaza and Israel´s conduct during the war, according to the White House.
In the interview last month, Kushner also suggested that getting civilians out of Rafah and potentially into Egypt, might be possible ‘with the right diplomacy,’ also positing a plan for the the Negev desert in southern Israel.
Additionally, Kushner suggested that he ‘would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there,’ adding: ‘I know that won´t be the popular thing to do, but I think that´s a better option to do, so you can go in and finish the job.’
‘I think Israel´s gone way more out of their way than a lot of other countries would, to try to protect civilians from casualties,’ Kushner added.
The debate over the Israel-Hamas war has developed into a major theme of this year’s U.S. presidential election, drawing dividing lines between Biden and Trump, as well as within their own parties.
Asked in an interview Monday about Democrats´ growing criticism of Netanyahu over his handling of the war in Gaza, Trump charged that Jews who vote for Democrats ‘hate Israel’ and hate ‘their religion,’ igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
He doubled down on those remarks Tuesday, telling reporters in Florida that ‘the Democrats have been very, very opposed to Jewish people.’