A report by the American newspaper The Washington Post, published on Sunday, December 17, 2023, revealed that a number of extremist Israeli settlers are planning to expand their attacks on Palestinians to include all Palestinian Arabs, stressing that they “derive this boldness from the most extremist government in the history of Israel, which granted them more weapons and money, taking advantage of the war on Gaza.”

The American newspaper says, “As Israel suffers the repercussions of the Hamas attack on October 7, the extremist settler group in the country sees new opportunities to expel Palestinians and expand the Jewish presence in the occupied territories, which represents a greater threat to the two-state solution.”

“We must wage war on the Arabs.”

When Gilad Zar, who was overseeing the security of Jewish settlers in the area, was shot dead by Palestinian gunmen in 2001, his father, a member of the Jewish underground, which Israel considers a terrorist organization, swore that he would establish six new illegal settlements, one for each letter of his name. .

One of these settlements is Havat Gilad, or Gilad Farm, which includes about 80 families residing on steep hills near the Palestinian city of Nablus.

Yehuda Shimon, a 48-year-old lawyer, says: “We have to wage war with the Arabs. here and in Gaza, the Arabs are one. If they do not leave, we have to fight them, and the strongest will win.”

Extremists here were already emboldened by the most extreme government in Israel's history, which includes settlers like Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, but the October 7 attack earned them more money, weapons and political support.

While Israel is raining bombs on Gaza, nearly a dozen Zionist organizations have incited a return to the Gaza settlements from which the Israelis were expelled in 2005 when Israel withdrew from the Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected this idea and described it as “unrealistic,” but these ideas began to spread among Israeli public opinion.

"This is the right time"

Since October 7, settlers in the West Bank have had a growing sense of impunity for their attacks on Palestinians. Over the past two months, armed settlers raided 15 Bedouin communities, destroyed homes, tore up tents, and displaced more than 1,200 people. The United States and Britain imposed a ban on granting entry visas to settlers involved in these attacks.

Shimon, who is appointed to defend some of these perpetrators, says that he knows nothing about the violence committed by the settlers. But he acknowledged that there was little fear of the consequences.

He also added: "This is the right time, the time when no one will stop you or tell you not to do it."

Also, Chamoun, like others here, claims that Zar bought large areas of land in the region from the Palestinians in the 1970s, but he did not divulge any details, claiming that no one actually owned it, and that it was “cheap.”

While the Palestinians confirm that it is private land that has been stolen, the Peace Now organization, which advocates a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, describes the settlers’ claim to land ownership as “beyond logic” because it relates to dozens of lands owned by hundreds.

"A new turning point"

Daniela Weiss, an extreme nationalist who sees the borders of the Jewish homeland as extending from the Jordan River to the Nile, helped establish the settlement of Havat Gilad and other illegal outposts, and said the best way to deal with “the dream of many Arabs of annihilating Israel” is to build .

She also added: "If I want to deal with a cruel enemy, the most effective way is not to kill him, but rather to build the Land of Israel. So when I face killing, I know that the way that makes me feel safer is to weaken the enemy."

She recalls setting up the first caravans on the hillside in Havat Gilad on the night Zar was killed: “That is the way of Zionism, and that is the way of Zionism.”

The first settler organization founded by Weiss, Gush Emunim, emerged from the ashes of the 1967 war. Its goal was to occupy territories that Israel had invaded after attacking Arab forces, such as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, so that the state would not have to return them.

She added that the eviction of 8,000 settlers from Gush Katif, which was a bloc of 17 settlements in Gaza, in 2005, led to the revitalization of this movement. Its current organization, "Nashala", was founded then, which aims to establish illegal settlement outposts.

It considers October 7 to be a “new turning point” in the settler movement.

She said: “Our position now is to return to Gaza, and this is normal. The moment we have the opportunity to return to the community to which we belong, we do so.”

To achieve this, it wants to expel Gazans from the Strip. “The Arabs cannot continue their lives in Gaza,” she said.

Return to Gaza

In this context, Settlements Minister Orit Struck called for a return to Gaza before October 7. Pictures were taken of Israeli soldiers fighting in the Gaza Strip carrying banners demanding the return of settlers. Some of them carried the giant menorah that once towered over the Jewish temple in Netzarim, south of Gaza City.

While a quarter of Israeli Jews want to rebuild the settlements in Gaza, according to a study conducted last month by the Jewish People’s Policy Institute.

Oded Ravivi, mayor of the West Bank settlement of Efrat, says that even with their ideological allies in government, approval for new construction in the West Bank will remain restricted because Israel will focus all its political capital with the United States on ending its military campaign in Gaza.

But in informal settlement outposts, construction takes place without permits. Even before October 7, demolitions of illegal Israeli construction had declined, while budgets for road construction and basic services had been boosted.

The next generation is "more extreme"

There is no fence separating the Havat Gilad settlement from its Palestinian neighbors, and residents rely on security cameras and armed guards.

About half the men here serve in the army, but Palestinians are afraid of launching an attack here, Shimon says. “We were treated strictly from the beginning, and this will teach others not to mess with you,” he added.

One of the original buses, now rusted, is now a meeting place for the settlement's boys and girls movement. A mural depicts black rockets burning in a blue sky, and each rocket bears the name of a young member of the settlement, Shamoun said.

For her part, Yael Shevach (38 years old), the widow of the rabbi who was killed in 2018, states that she still believes that Palestinians and Jews can live together in the West Bank.

She says the settlement's younger residents are more radicalized, and the October 7 attack further radicalized them. She said: “My children are more extremist, of course, and their hatred for the Palestinians is increasing.”

At sunset, Shimon returned to the trailers in which he raised his 11 children to light the menorah for Hanukkah, which celebrates the Maccabees’ revolt against Greek rule.

“If we don't fight for ourselves, no one will fight for us,” says his 21-year-old daughter, Judith.