Israeli resettlement leader says her group has received money from ‘very wealthy Americans’ to move to Gaza, but won’t name backers after Jared Kushner touts ‘value’ of waterfront land

Israeli resettlement leader Daniella Weiss says her organization enjoys significant support in the United States and that wealthy, prominent Jews have donated significant sums to the Gaza resettlement effort.

In an interview with CNN’s Clarissa Ward, Weiss, 78, spoke about the possibility of resettling Gush Katif – a bloc of 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip that were forcibly evacuated by the Israeli army in 2005.

Among Israelis, support for the possible resettlement of Gaza has grown by leaps and bounds since October 7, and Weiss is at the center of the movement to do just that.

There are an estimated 700,000 Israelis who actively want to resettle the country, essentially taking the land back from the Palestinians. The hope is that resettlement would lead to this a lasting peace.

Her comments come just weeks after Jared Kushner praised the “very valuable” capabilities of Gaza’s “waterfront property.”

Flyers and pamphlets distributed by Weiss and her supporters say, “The people of Israel are returning home,” meaning to Gaza, and present a vision for what the resettled country could look like.

“We are here because God promised us this land,” said one settler.

Others say Gaza’s land along the Mediterranean coast could be developed into a kind of new ‘Riviera’.

Speaking to Ward, Weiss said she believes Gaza’s Arab residents lost their right to be there on October 7.

‘No Arab, I am talking about more than 2 million Arabs. They won’t stay there. We Jews will be in Gaza,” she told Ward, who responded by telling her the sentiment sounded like “ethnic cleansing.”

Weiss disputed this view, responding that it is the Arabs who want to “destroy the State of Israel” and cleanse the Jews.

“Until October 7, I had no plans to return to Gaza… It is clear that I am not interested in cleansing,” she said.

About 26 percent of Israelis support resettling the Gush Katif area once the war between Israel and Hamas is over.

Among those who support right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that figure rises to 51 percent, according to the newspaper. Jewish People Police Institute.

Netanyahu, who is currently facing increasing criticism from the US Democratic party, including the president, has said he believes the post-war resettlement of Gaza is an “unrealistic goal.”

Weiss says she already has about 500 families who have expressed interest in being part of the effort to do just that.

Ward asked Israel’s Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu why he supports the resettlement effort, which is widely seen as “illegal,” “immoral,” “not supported by the majority of Israelis” and “very harmful to Israel in terms of its international status.’

Amihai told her he does not think it is “immoral” to “take land from someone who wants to kill,” referring to the Palestinian people.

“Why is it immoral to take my land, where my ancestors lived, which I even gave up, to someone who slaughters, rapes and kills me? What’s more immoral than that?’ he said.

In an interview last month, wealthy, prominent American Jew Kushner shared his thoughts on the value potential of the Gaza Strip — though there is no evidence he actively supports Weiss’ mission to resettle.

The interview, which was posted by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, shows Kushner touting the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property.”

“Gaza’s waterfront real estate could be very valuable if people focused on building livelihoods,” said former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House Middle East adviser.

“If you think about all the money that went into this tunnel network and all the munitions, if it had gone into education or innovation, what could have been done?

“It’s a bit of an unfortunate situation there, but I think from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to get the people out and then clean it up,” he said.

“But I don’t think Israel has stated that they don’t want people to move there,” he added.

Later, Kushner posted the full interview to his

He said he stood by his comments and believes that “the lives of the Palestinian people will ONLY improve if the international community and their citizens start demanding accountability from their leadership.”

About 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Israel seeks to eliminate Hamas following the militant group’s deadly attack on October 7.

Since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 70,000 injured in the Gaza Strip.

On Monday, Netanyahu agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss a future Rafah operation with Biden administration officials.

The agreement to hold such talks came as President Joe Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Monday, their first interaction in more than a month, as the rift between the allies over the Gaza food crisis and Israel’s behavior during the war has grown, according to reports. the White House.

In last month’s interview, Kushner also suggested it could be possible to get civilians out of Rafah and possibly into Egypt “with the right diplomacy,” also putting forward a plan for the Negev Desert in southern Israel.

Furthermore, Kushner suggested that he would “just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people there,” adding, “I know this won’t be popular, but I think this is a better option to do that then, so you can go in and finish the job.”

“I think Israel has done a much harder job than many other countries in trying to protect civilians from casualties,” Kushner added.

The debate over the war between Israel and Hamas has emerged as a major theme of this year’s US presidential election, creating divisions between Biden and Trump, as well as within their own parties.

Asked in an interview Monday about Democrats’ growing criticism of Netanyahu over his handling of the Gaza war, Trump charged that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and hate “their religion,” sparking a firestorm of sparked criticism from the White House and the White House. Jewish leaders.

He doubled down on those comments on Tuesday, telling reporters in Florida that “the Democrats are very, very opposed to the Jewish people.”