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ISRAELI KNESSET HOSTS CONFERENCE ON PLAN TO ‘OCCUPY GAZA’ AND
‘RELOCATE GAZANS’  
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Stephen Prager
July 23, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ "There is a purpose to this war, and it’s a criminal one," wrote
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in Haaretz this past weekend. _

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, (credit: REUTERS, YONATAN
SINDEL/FLASH90)

 

The Israeli Knesset hosted a conference
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Tuesday in which far-right politicians and settlers openly discussed a
"proposed plan" to cleanse the Gaza
[[link removed]] Strip of Palestinians and
annex it for Israel [[link removed]].

At the conference, titled "The Gaza Riviera–from vision to reality,"
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a member of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's defense ministry, said "We will
occupy Gaza and make it an inseparable part of Israel."

Throughout the speech, he was met with cheers from other members of
the Knesset and radical settler groups in attendance.

Smotrich claimed that Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir
favors the idea of occupying part of Gaza through a so-called
"security annexation."

"I truly believe there is a tremendous opportunity here," Smotrich
said, suggesting that Israel begin "with the northern border [area of
the strip] and establish three communities there. We are already
talking about it. Some call it a 'security annexation'."

Smotrich described this occupation as a path to fully conquer Gaza,
and spoke of "a proposed plan to relocate Gazans to other countries,"
which he said "will serve as a means of facilitating the settlement of
the strip."

He spoke of a "green light from the president of the United States to
turn Gaza into a prosperous strip, a resort town with employment,"
referring to U.S. President Trump's stated support for efforts to
remove more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza to turn the strip
into a "resort town."

During the conference, many plans for the Jewish settlement of Gaza
and the expulsion of Palestinians were presented by Knesset members
and settler groups.

Daphna Liel, of Israeli news network _Channel 12_, reported
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presented by the far-right settler group Nachala
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involved the construction of over 300,000 housing units for 1.2
million Jewish settlers, who'd live there "without Gazans because they
will all be expelled or emigrate, and not only voluntarily."

Daniella Weiss , the leader of Nachala, said
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"The Arab Gaza chapter is over."

"And then they wonder why the world isn't convinced that Israel is
there only to defend itself," Liel wrote in response.

Kariv Galid, a member of the Knesset from the Democrats—a minor
center-left party in Israel—expressed shock at Smotrich's language.

"Sometimes it is appropriate to be cautious, to be meticulous, and to
choose words and titles carefully. Sometimes it is necessary to say
things clearly and as they are," Galid wrote on X.
[[link removed]] "The Finance
Minister of the State of Israel, who also serves as an additional
minister in the Defense Ministry, is calling for the commission of war
crimes."

These statements are hardly new for Smotrich, who has spoken at length
about the dream of conquering Gaza and evicting its people
at multiple other conferences
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the past two years.

But it's the first time such a conference has been held in Israel's
parliament, revealing the extent to which ethnic cleansing has been
assimilated into the mainstream of the nation's politics.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long insisted that
Israel had no plans to resettle Gaza or to force the Palestinians out,
but recent events and reporting suggest otherwise.

Last week, Barak Ravid of _Axios
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on a meeting between Mossad spy chief David Barnea and White House
envoy Steve Witkoff in which the two discussed the "evacuation" of
Palestinians from Gaza to other countries, including Ethiopia,
Indonesia, and Libya.

That news came as it was revealed that Israel had destroyed
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buildings in Gaza and that its blockade of humanitarian aid was
resulting in an unprecedented wave of mass starvation and
malnutrition
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The United Nations also now reports 
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more than 1,000 aid seekers have been killed in under two months at
sites administered by the U.S.-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The Israeli military Sunday also issued new evacuation orders
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large areas in North and South Gaza, where Palestinians were told that
if they refuse they would be targeted.

The orders followed an announcement by Defense Minister Israel Katz to
build what he called a "humanitarian city" on the ruins of Rafah—a
camp where more than 600,000 Palestinians would be corralled with no
right to leave.

Former Israeli Army Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon spoke out
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these actions in a post on X on Monday.

"Evacuating all residents from their homes indiscriminately,
systematically demolishing houses, and concentrating them into a small
area referred to as a 'humanitarian city' for the purpose of voluntary
deportation—this is a series of war crimes under international law,"
said Yaalon.

In _Haaretz
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journalist Gideon Levy described this so-called humanitarian city as
"the first Israeli concentration camp." He continued:

Systematic destruction is proceeding throughout the enclave so that
there is nowhere to return to other than the concentration camp...

Israel is quietly perpetrating a crime against humanity. Not a house
here and a house there, no "operational necessities," but a systematic
elimination of any chance of life there, while preparing the
infrastructure for concentrating people in a "humanitarian"
city...That is the plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

This is no longer a rolling war. One can no longer accuse Benjamin
Netanyahu of waging a war with no purpose. There is a purpose to this
war, and it's a criminal one.

_Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

* War on Gaza
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* annexation
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* Israeli right-wing
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