Israel will return to the Gush Katif settlement bloc abandoned during the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declares during an Independence Day event in the West Bank settlement of Brukhin, during which he praises the current government for “leading a true revolution” by announcing “no fewer than 103 new settlements in Judea and Samaria.”
Among the settlements approved by the government were Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim, which were evacuated during the disengagement, and their reestablishment is an “historical correction of the injustice of the expulsion,” Smotrich declares, stating that “we have returned home, and this time forever.”
“And just as we returned to Northern Samaria, we shall also return to Gush Katif,” he adds, citing Jeremiah’s prophecy of Israel’s return to its land, and stating that “today, here in Samaria, the prophecies of consolation are no longer a dream but the view from the window. The prophecies are taking shape in cranes and tractors, in agriculture and homes, and in boys and girls playing in the streets.” “We are not just reading the prophecies, we are privileged to be the generation that fulfills them,” he says, praising the government for its military and economic achievements.
Smotrich’s speech comes two days after he called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fully occupy and settle the Gaza Strip, insisting that the end of the war against Hamas in Gaza must be accompanied by territorial expansion during a ceremony marking the resettlement of the West Bank town of Sa-Nur. Despite Smotrich’s proclamations, a return to settlement in Gaza is strongly opposed by the US and remains highly unlikely in the foreseeable future. (Source)
