While many Palestinians dream of escaping the ruins of Gaza, Israeli Tchiya Chaim cannot wait for the chance to move there – and take her 11 children with her.
asserted
Chaim → dream → her
For the past week, the settler activist and hundreds of comrades have been living in an outpost in southern Israel, just a few hundred metres from the Gaza border.
asserted
activist → live → border
Working quickly overnight to avoid detection, they established what looks like a squatter campsite with rows of tents, tarpaulins, demountables and caravans.
asserted
what → work → tents
They have called the encampment Halutzei Aza – “the Pioneers of Gaza”.
asserted
They → call → Gaza
“God willing, we will stay here until the government will take this settlement and put it into Gaza,” says Chaim, a member of the controversial Nachala settler organisation led by Daniella Weiss, known as the godmother of the Israeli settler movement.
asserted
Chaim → stay → movement
“It’s part of Israel, and we are going back there.
asserted
we → ’ → Israel
And what should happen to the two million Palestinians who live there?
asserted
who → happen → Palestinians
“They have so many places they can go,” she responds with a grin.
asserted
she → have → grin
Don’t you have room for them?”
asserted
you → have → them
As we speak, children run around wearing T-shirts saying “Gaza’s Jews”.
asserted
children → speak → Jews
Chaim speaks glowingly of Gaza as a place of tranquillity and natural beauty, not mentioning the fact that most of its buildings have been destroyed or damaged during Israel’s war against Hamas, which killed more than 74,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
uncertain
which → speak → Ministry
Locals there speak of rodent infestations and infectious diseases running rampant amid the rubble.
asserted
Locals → speak → rubble
The Pioneers of Gaza have nestled themselves between Kfar Aza and Nahal Oz, two of the kibbutz communities that came under brutal attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
asserted
that → nestle → October
It’s a vivid display of the competing ideologies at the far ends of Israel’s political spectrum.
asserted
It → ’ → spectrum
The kibbutzim are famously left-leaning, pro-peace and secular; the Pioneers of Gaza and its supporters are right-wing, mostly religious, and committed to establishing a Jewish presence across all of what they call Greater Israel.
asserted
they → commit → what
In the West Bank, settlers commonly use hastily built outposts to establish a foothold that later becomes a more developed and permanent community – despite the settlements being regarded as illegal under international law.
asserted
settlements → use → law
This one, inside Israel’s 1948 borders, is designed as a way station to the Gaza Strip.
asserted
one → design → Strip
Its arrival just days before Israelis vote in their first election since 2022 sends a message from the settlers that they want this to be a priority for the next government.
‘[The Palestinians] lost the war and when you lose you have to face the consequences.
asserted
you → vote → consequences
Relocating is the least they could do.’Rabbi Duv Fendel
uncertain
they → relocate → ?
The Nachala settlers had no permission to set up their camp in the forest, which is controlled by the Jewish National Fund, a major charity.
asserted
which → have → Fund
But authorities are showing no haste in moving them on.
asserted
authorities → show → them
When we visit, there are a handful of police at the scene watching passively.
asserted
we → visit → scene
Eventually, the officers politely ask someone from the camp to join them for questioning at the station.
asserted
officers → ask → station
When the settlers decline, they quickly give up.
asserted
they → decline → ?
“We’re working together,” Chaim says, evincing no concern at being evicted.
asserted
Chaim → work → concern
Israel’s police force is controlled by the ultra-national National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, himself a radical right-wing settler.
asserted
force → control → Minister
The mayor of the nearby town of Sderot, a stronghold of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, has visited to express solidarity and support for the settlers’ cause.
asserted
mayor → visit → cause
Twenty-one Jewish settlements were built in Gaza between 1967 and 2005, before Israel dismantled them under a policy known as the unilateral disengagement.
asserted
Israel → build → disengagement
Israel evacuated 8000 settlers from Gaza and relocated a cemetery containing 48 graves, while retaining control of the strip’s sea and airspace.
asserted
Israel → evacuate → sea
The policy was deeply polarising at the time, with critics arguing it would expose Israel to more terror attacks.
asserted
it → polarise → attacks
Soon after the disengagement, the Iran-backed Islamist militant group Hamas gained power and began smuggling in rockets and building an elaborate underground tunnel network.
asserted
group → back → network
Two decades later came the October 7 attacks, which killed an estimated 1200 Israelis.
asserted
which → come → Israelis
Rabbi Duv Fendel, who has travelled from Sderot to teach Torah classes to the would-be Gaza settlers, says: “It’s outrageous that the only place in the world that by law a Jew is forbidden to live is in the Gaza Strip.
asserted
Jew → travel → Strip
Uprooting the settlements was one of the most hideous crimes in Zionism, and they need to be restored immediately.”
asserted
they → uproot → Zionism
As for the Palestinians living there, he peppers his speech with comparisons between Hamas and the Nazis.
asserted
he → live → Hamas
“They lost the war and when you lose you have to face the consequences.
asserted
you → lose → consequences
Relocating is the least they could do,” he says.
uncertain
he → relocate → ?
The activists at the camp say they speak for a large part of Israeli society, and they are correct.
asserted
they → say → society
While not commanding majority support, resettling Gaza is not a fringe position either.
asserted
resettling → command → Gaza
A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute last year found 40 per cent of Jewish Israelis support Israeli settlement of the Gaza Strip.
asserted
cent → find → Strip
…and 32 more, not listed.
The Aporia
