Bucking Israel’s far right, several large American Jewish groups say they oppose resettling Gaza
The statements by some of the largest Jewish organizations in the country come as a number of Israeli government ministers call for resettling the Palestinian enclave.
View of the Kiryat Arba settlement near the West Bank city of Hebron, as seen on Nov. 20, 2022. (Wisam Hashlamoun FLASH90)
(JTA) — A number of major centrist and liberal American Jewish groups say they oppose the reestablishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza.
The statements by some of the largest Jewish organizations in the country, made in response to press inquiries, come as Israel has reportedly cleared out portions of northern Gaza, and as far-right Israeli government ministers have called for resettling the Palestinian enclave. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have also repeatedly called for Israel to encourage Palestinians to leave Gaza, drawing condemnation from the Biden administration.
For several American Jewish groups — including some that have vocally defended Israel’s prosecution of its war in Gaza against Hamas — the idea of Israeli settlements in Gaza is a non-starter. Groups opposed to the idea include the Jewish Federations of North America, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League. Also opposed are bodies representing the Reform and Conservative movements, which together can claim to represent the majority of American Jews.
“The land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, indigenous to both Jews and Arabs, cannot be the exclusive domain of one people, but must be shared,” Jason Isaacson, AJC’s chief policy and political affairs officer, said. “Like the vast majority of Israelis, AJC believes that the reestablishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza, or a program of displacing Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, would be contrary to Israel’s interests.”
Israel evacuated its Gaza settlements in 2005, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out the idea of reestablishing them after the war. But while most Israelis oppose the idea, more than a third — including 42% of Israeli Jews — support it, according to a recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute. That includes nearly 60% of Israeli Jewish right-wingers, the current government’s voter base.
“Ideas like settlement in Gaza are welcome, we need to remember that in the end that’s the biggest punishment for what they did to us on Oct. 7,” Ben-Gvir said in an interview on Israeli radio this month, referencing the Hamas attack that launched the war.
He said he discusses encouraging Palestinian emigration from Gaza frequently in government meetings, and said, “I’m starting to see a certain openness to the topic” on Netanyahu’s part. “I hope the prime minister will understand in the end that this is the way,” he added.
Those sentiments have faced criticism in Israel, including from former officials who were once partners with Netanyahu and have since broken with him.
Moshe Ya’alon, a former Israeli military chief who served as Netanyahu’s defense minister a decade ago, said recently, “The road they’re taking us down is one of occupation, annexation, ethnic cleansing. Look at the north of the strip — transfer, call it what you want, in order to establish Jewish settlement there. That’s the idea.”
Carole Nuriel, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Israel office, condemned proposals to permanently displace Palestinians in Gaza and reestablish Jewish settlements there.
“We are deeply troubled by statements from Israeli government ministers and activists advocating for the emigration or ‘population thinning’ of Palestinians in Gaza,” Nuriel said in a statement. “These views reflect an inhumane approach, tarnish Israel’s reputation, and are fundamentally immoral.”
Discussion of the issue recently attracted attention at a Jewish Federations of North America conference, where a senior executive joked in a closed-door meeting about owning property in Gaza, drawing blowback from a number of attendees.
In response to an inquiry, a spokesperson for JFNA said the group’s position on Gaza resettlement “has not changed,” pointing to the group’s own policy page, which supports a two-state solution “where Israel lives in peace with a demilitarized Palestinian state” — an outcome that would preclude Israeli occupation and settlement of Gaza.
Support for a two-state solution is widespread, though not universal, among centrist U.S. Jewish groups, though condemnations of Israeli West Bank settlement from their desks are rarer. Polls show that most Israelis oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state, as does the Israeli government.
In its statement on Gaza settlement, however, the Union for Reform Judaism noted that it opposes West Bank settlement expansion as well.
“Just as we have been steadfast in our opposition to continued settlement expansion, we are adamantly opposed to the horrendous and dangerous plan by right-wing members of the current Israeli government to resettle Gaza,” said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, URJ’s president. He added that settlement of Gaza would make Israel “less secure” by diverting its military, and would also displace Palestinians.
The Rabbinical Assembly, which represents clergy from the Conservative movement, also said it “opposes any plan for Jewish settlement in Gaza,” which CEO Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal said “would be a significant step backward” for other stated goals in the region, including the release of hostages still being held by Hamas, as well as any eventual Palestinian state.
AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, did not directly address settlement in Gaza in response to an inquiry about it.
“Our focus remains on ensuring that America continues to stand with Israel as it fights a just war against aggression from Iran and the regime’s terrorist proxies on Israel’s borders and across the Middle East,” the group’s spokesman Marshall Wittmann told JTA in a statement.
By contrast, the liberal Israel lobby J Street said it was vocally opposed to any Gaza resettlement project, and voiced concern about Israel “being dragged into the abyss by extremists.”
Gaza resettlement, said J Street Vice President Adina Vogel-Ayalon, would “not only cross a red line for the majority of American Jews and for J Street, but for most Israelis and many former military and political leaders. This should be a red line for any pro-Israel group representing American Jews.”
Representatives for the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America, major American Orthodox groups, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella group that supports Israel and whose members span political ideologies.
Some American Jews, though, support resettling Gaza, including Morton Klein, the head of the Zionist Organization of America, which has long supported Israeli settlements.
“We truly support Jews who want to return to their homes in Gaza or live in Gaza. If 2 million Arabs can live in Israel, why can’t Jews live in Gaza?” Klein said. “And the Israeli government should help facilitate that.”
The statements came as some of the same groups opposed to resettling Gaza harshly criticized a new report from the human rights NGO Amnesty International this week that accuses Israel of genocide. The report also calls on the international community to “oppose any attempts by Israel to establish a permanent military presence in Gaza, alter its borders and demographic make-up or shrink its territory,” among a litany of charges against Israel.
Israel has rejected the genocide accusation, saying that it takes extensive measures to limit harm to civilians, an argument the AJC and other supporters echoed.
“Israel’s many actions in Gaza that are clearly intended to allow it to fight Hamas while limiting incidental harm to civilians should make it clear to all that its forces act with no such intent,” the group said.
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