Security & Diplomacy
Settlements in Gaza
Israel should rebuild Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Israel evacuated all 21 Gaza settlements in 2005. A Likud minister has called for rebuilding them to be in the party's platform.
What is at stake
Israel evacuated its 21 Gaza settlements in 2005 and removed every resident. Hamas took the territory two years later. Since the war, activists have pressed for a return, and a Likud minister wants rebuilding written into the party platform.
The case for
- The 2005 withdrawal handed Gaza to Hamas. An Israeli civilian presence stops that happening again.
- Communities on the ground commit the army to holding the territory rather than leaving it once more.
- The families evacuated in 2005 were told they could return one day. That promise was never kept.
The case against
- Guarding a few thousand civilians among two million Palestinians would tie down whole divisions.
- No Arab state will fund Gaza's reconstruction if Israel settles civilians there.
- The 2005 withdrawal was voted by a Likud government and carried out by Ariel Sharon. Reversing it reopens the right's deepest wound.
Both sides get the same number of points at comparable length. That is a rule of this site, not a coincidence.
What the next Knesset could decide
The government alone decides on civilian presence in territory under military control; it needs no Knesset vote. The budget and the army's plans will show whether anything is actually built.