Against the backdrop of calls and actions by right-wing Israelis to promote a return to Gush Katif and the establishment of settlements in the Gaza Strip, MK Matan Kahana from Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party on Sunday morning told Reshet Bet Radio he didn’t rule out the establishment of settlements in the Strip, saying, “Gaza is the Land of Israel.”
תכנית ההתיישבות בעזה יצאה אל הפועל:
1. תנועת ״נחלה״ הציבה 40 קרוואנים על גבול רצועת עזה וחיברה אותם לתשתיות חשמל ומים, בעלות של 15 מלש״ח.
2. לצד הקרוואנים מוקמו מנופים מוכנים לפעולה.
3. עשרות משפחות של ״גרעיני התיישבות״ כבר מאכלסות את הקרוואנים.
— Yuval Ganor (@yuval_ganor) November 25, 2024
“As a right-winger, I aspire for Jews to be able to live on every grain of sand in the Land of Israel, and Gaza is the Land of Israel,” Kahane said, but clarified quickly: “To tell you that we need to do this soon? No.”
Kahana, 52, served as Deputy Minister of Religious Services in Naftali Bennett’s coalition government that included Meretz, Labor, and the Muslim Brotherhood. He was part of Bennett’s New Right and later Yamina parties. In August 2022, Kahana decided to leave Yamina for Gantz’s National Unity party.
A little over a week ago, Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf (UTJ) was photographed at the entrance to the Netzarim axis in the Gaza Strip with settlement enterprise activist Daniela Weiss and officials in her Nahala movement, which is working to establish renewed Jewish settlements within the Gaza Strip. The minister was presented with a map of settlement nuclei in Gaza.
“I toured the settlements of the Gaza region today,” Goldknopf tweeted on November 28. “Jewish settlement here is the answer to the terrible massacre and the answer to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which instead of caring for the 101 kidnapped people chose to issue warrants against the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense.”
That same day, MK Benny Gantz told 103FM: “We need to get the hostages out of Gaza and not let other settlers into Gaza.”
Gantz added: “We have a blessed settlement in Judea and Samaria, let’s preserve it. And we have the Gaza Strip, where we have nothing to look for except the hostages, and security. We need to be careful about that and not get dragged into anything else. If we need to delay the fighting in order to reach a deal, that’s what needs to be done.”
Kahana is an IDF reserve officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel, who served as a fighter in Sayeret Matkal, as a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force, and as commander of an F-16 squadron.
