Gaza's Full Occupation Would Pave Way For Israeli Resettlement

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On June 5 1967, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) major general, Yeshayahu Gavish, commanded his troops to occupy the Gaza Strip, which was then under the control of Egypt.

He did so in defiance of orders from Israel's then defence minister, Moshe Dayan, who had warned against being“stuck with a quarter of a million Palestinians” in an area“bristled with problems ... a nest of wasps.”

But once it had moved IDF troops into the Strip, the Israeli government followed a policy of breaking up Palestinian-populated areas by establishing military outposts, which then became civilian settlements.

In 1970, Israel's then Labour government established two “Nahal settlements.” Named after the Nahal brigade , founded by Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, these settlements were agricultural communities established by military force.

By 2005, there were 21 civilian settlements in the strip, with a total estimated population of 8,600, living alongside a Palestinian population of around 1.3 million.

Map of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip before disengagement: May 2005. US Central Intelligence Agency via Wikipedia

The settlers' ideology at that stage did not include the sort of racist anti-Arab sentiments that have become prolific in the ultranationalist corners of the settler movement. But the disparities between the overpopulated Palestinian refugee camps and the flourishing Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip – protected by IDF troops – led to growing Palestinian resentment .

Disengagement from Gaza

Things began to change with the second intifada (uprising), which erupted in 2000 and led to a reassessment of Israel's settlement policy. Security considerations and a desire to reduce confrontations between the IDF and Palestinian civilians necessitated a new policy of separation .

The Israeli government also wanted to maintain a majority-Jewish population in areas under its control. So the idea of separating off the majority Arab areas under the control of a Palestinian authority was appealing to the government of the then-prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

Sharon had previously been known as the father of the settlement project. But in 2004, he ordered the evacuation of all Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the north of the West Bank, a project which was accomplished in 2005.

Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Jim Wallace/Smithsonian Institution via Wikimedia Commons , CC BY-SA

The previously consistent alignment between the settler movement and the state came to an abrupt end. While the majority of Israelis supported the plan, the religious right was violently opposed.

The Jerusalem Post reported :“For Religious Zionists, who link Torah, people, and land, the state's bulldozers felt like a theological betrayal.”

The“disengagement plan” had significant consequences on the settler movement, which then fragmented. A militant racist wing emerged, which has since grown in power and influence.