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President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza says there will be no displacement of Palestinians from the territory. It’s a pivot from his earlier position that Palestinians should be transferred to other countries. But as Itay Stern reports from Jerusalem, powerful figures in Israel’s government are still wedded to Trump’s original idea, and they say that Israel must never leave Gaza.
ITAY STERN: Several hundred people, including government ministers, lawmakers and members of the public, are filing into a large hall in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. They are here for a 3 1/2-hour-long session organized by the far right in Israel, which dominates the government. I’m here at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Signs welcoming attendees call for the voluntary migration of Gazans, the destruction of Hamas and full Israeli control of the territory. What were once fringe, feverish dreams of the most extreme elements of Israeli society are now common to hear in the corridors of power since the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel in 2023.
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AVIDA BACHAR: (Speaking Hebrew).
STERN: That’s Avida Bachar speaking at the Knesset session in mid-January, three months into the ceasefire. His wife and 15-year-old son were killed in the October 7 attack. He tells the hundreds of people here that everyone in Gaza is an enemy, that babies born there now will grow up to be Hamas. His words, that there are no innocent people in Gaza, sparked applause.
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STERN: A video at the session shows Israeli soldiers in Gaza blowing up entire neighborhood blocks and bombing high-rise buildings. The Israeli national anthem plays over footage of Israeli soldiers on Gaza’s shore. The video says, we’re establishing Nova Beach on Gaza’s beach.
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UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing in Hebrew).
STERN: It’s a reference to the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival in 2023 that Israel says killed nearly 400 people. This fervor, motivated by security concerns and ideological conviction, was echoed by government ministers at the Knesset. Minister of Settlements and National Missions Orit Strook says, in her view, Israel will have full sovereignty over Gaza within 10 years.
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ORIT STROOK: (Through interpreter) If our prime minister doesn’t know how to tell Trump and the world that Gaza is ours, we will be stuck with a plan that says Gaza belongs to the Palestinians.
STERN: Israel’s Justice Minister Yariv Levin says security can only be achieved where there’s Jewish settlements.
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YARIV LEVIN: (Speaking Hebrew).
STERN: He says, “we need to be in Gaza because this is our land, the land of Israel and the Jewish people, and only the Jewish people.” Polls in the months before the current ceasefire show Israeli society divided on whether Israel should rebuild Jewish settlements in Gaza. The far right in Israel say there is an opportunity now to rewrite history, beginning with northern Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians were killed and many forced to flee their homes. But this is not what Israel agreed to in President Trump’s ceasefire deal, and it puts the Israeli government at odds with Israel’s official policy.
MICHAEL RATNEY: I think at some level, it is political noise, but it does have an impact.
STERN: Michael Ratney, who served at the U.S. embassy in Israel and is an expert on the region, thinks it’s unlikely that Jewish settlements will be reestablished in Gaza. But he says these calls from Netanyahu’s own party and the far-right coalition he depends on to remain in power feed into his decision-making.
RATNEY: It’s not the policy of the government, but he’s ultimately sensitive to the urges of his most extreme elements, and they, to some degree, define government policy.
STERN: Among those defining that policy is Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
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BEZALEL SMOTRICH: (Speaking Hebrew).
STERN: At the recent inauguration of a new Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Smotrich said the time had come to tell Trump his plan is bad for Israel and to cancel it. Gaza is ours, he said. For now, Gaza is physically divided with more than half the territory occupied by Israel. The rest is where Palestinians live and Hamas governs. Trump’s plan rests on Hamas disarming and Israel withdrawing. Israel says it won’t withdraw until Hamas disarms. Hamas has floated its own conditions, like a path toward Palestinian statehood. Within that stalemate, Gaza’s future remains undecided. Itay Stern, NPR News, Jerusalem.
(SOUNDBITE OF KAYTRANADA’S “WEIGHT OFF (FEAT. BADBADNOTGOOD)”) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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