High in the hills of the occupied West Bank. A flag flies in the face of a Palestinian village. God is king, it says to young settlers. Guard this illegal outpost. Construction hasn't even begun. But we are not welcome. So they are asking us to leave. They don't want to talk to us. They said they've been here for about nine months. Dotted across the landscape, more signs of the fight to assert Israeli control over Palestinian land. The Arabic names on signs post crudely erased. Under international law, the beating Douglas settlement is illegal. But last February, the Israeli government officially recognized it, along with eight others, a move the U.S. strongly opposed. Come on. We're here because God promised us this land, as real, Bekaa tells us. Now, these settlers have set their sights on a new prize, one that seemed utterly impossible before October seven. Returning to Gaza, they cheer. That is the goal of Zionist settler organization Nahla. One of more than a dozen groups now advocating for the reestablishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza. A recent promotional video even boasts that Gaza will become the next Riviera. Don't sit on it. Not live here. Daniella Weiss is the godmother of the movement and she's already started recruiting from the 700,000 strong settler community of Israel. We're just arriving now at a settlement in the occupied West Bank, and we're heading to a talk that Daniella Weiss is giving to a group of people who are potentially interested in resettling Gaza. And I know that it is. We are for the land of Israel and Ben-Gvir, she says. About 20 people gather in the living room of a family. Farm on Miriam. Way snows that for many in this community, there is deep nostalgia for Gush Katif. A block of 21 Israeli settlements that were forcibly evacuated by the IDF in 2005 when Israel left the Gaza Strip. Then this is the vision of Gaza, she says. You see all the nucleus groups in Sheba. A map has already been drawn up, with six groups laying claim to different parts of the enclaves. So they've just been handing out these little booklets that say people of Israel return home. And then underneath. A call to return to the settlements of Gaza, to Florida. One of the organizers tells the group they have a representative flying to Florida to raise money. Nicola gets support from a number of groups in the U.S., including AFC Americans for a Safe Israel, which cosponsored a recent webinar on the return to Gush Katif. Even as the Biden administration has cracked down on settlements in the West Bank, there is. A very strong support from very prominent from very, yeah, I would say wealthy people. Wealthy Jews in the US. In the US. Can you name any names? No, I cannot. No. Back at her home in Cardamom settlement, Weiss tells us she's already enrolled. 500 families. I even have on my on my cell phone names of people who say to enlist me, enroll me. I want to join. I want to join the groups that are going to settle Gaza. I have to ask you, though, because we're sitting here talking and we're listening. I'm listening. I hope you are listening to it. Is a reminder, I think, of the people who live here, but also the people who live in Gaza. What happens to them in this vision of this new settlement with Jewish settlers, even in Gaza City? What I think about Gaza, the Arabs of Gaza lost the right to be in Gaza on the 7th of October. Yes, I do hear the mosque. I do hear the the the that the the prayer things where different until the 7th of October. No Arabic speaking about more than 2 million Arabs. They will not stay there. We Jews will be in Gaza. That sounds like ethnic cleansing. The Arabs want to annihilate the state of Israel. So you can call them monsters. You can you can call their call them cleansing of Jews. We are not doing to them. They are doing to us. I couldn't make it clearer when I said that myself as a person who is preoccupied with settling the land until the 7th of October. I didn't have plans of returning to Gaza. It's clear I'm not interested in cleansing. What is clear is that Weiss has views traditionally seen as extreme in Israel have become more popular since October 7th. In late January, jubilant crowds packed an auditorium in Jerusalem for the victory of Israel conference, calling for the resettlement of Gaza. A poll that month from the Jewish People Policy Institute found that 26% of Israeli eyes advocate the reconstruction of the Gush Katif settlements after the war is over. Among supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing coalition government, that number jumps to 51%. Several ministers were present at the conference, including far right Heritage minister and the High Eliyahu in a rare interview with Western media. He tells us his political decisions are guided by the Torah. But is there. Anything about Gush Katif in here? Yes. Yes. The because the Muslim. And the settlements in Gaza are needed to prevent another October seven. A look at the language of the land says that wherever there is a Jewish settlements, there will be more security. Doesn't mean there will be absolute security, but there will be more security. Why would you advocate for something that many would say is illegal, is immoral, is not supported by the majority of Israelis, and is also very harmful to Israel in terms of its international standing? Lamont enclosed incredulously. Why do you think it's immoral to take land from someone who wants to kill me? Why is it immoral to take my land which my ancestors live there, which I've even given up to someone who slaughters, rapes and murders me? What is more and more than that? Netanyahu has called resettling Gaza, quote, an unrealistic goal. And most Israelis. But that hasn't stopped scores and IDF soldiers fighting there from posting videos calling for a return to Gush Katif perspective. For many supporters of the settler movement, what was once a distant fantasy is now a fervent dream. Clarissa Ward, CNN, the occupied West Bank.
