Israeli foreign minister calls for Jews to settle in Israel

Gideon Saar, Israel’s Foreign Minister, has called on Jews from the Western world to emigrate to Israel, allegedly over concerns about antisemitism following the shooting attack at an Australian Hanukkah celebration on December 14th, as reported by the Middle East Eye and agencies on December 21st.

Saar called for “the Jews of England, the Jews of France, the Jews of Australia, the Jews of Canada, [and] the Jews of Belgium: [to] come to the Land of Israel!”

Under the 1950 “Law of Return“, Jews from anywhere in the world are permitted to emigrate to Israel and become full citizens. The process is known in Hebrew as “Aliyah”, meaning “ascent.”

To become eligible for Israeli citizenship, applicants must have one Jewish grandparent, at the very least. Emigration to Israel is arguably encouraged as part of a broader government plan to maintain a Jewish demographic majority in Israel.

Saar’s comments come against a backdrop of reports that the Israeli Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee had expressed support for a bill that would make it easier for Jewish people to purchase West Bank land.

Currently, an estimated 700,000 Israelis reside in settlements across the West Bank and Jerusalem, with the number expected to increase following Israel’s plans to deliver 19 new settlements in the West Bank.

The expansion of settlements is widely regarded as illegal under international law; however, Israeli settlers have increasingly sought to establish and expand settlements, including in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Settler outposts in Gaza were officially dismantled as part of the 2005 settler “disengagement” plan under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was described by some as the “Father of the Settlements.”

Gaza has been under an Israeli-imposed land, sea and air blockade since 2007, with already dire conditions deteriorating further amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed over 70,000 people since October 2023.

Groups such as the Nachala Movement have urged Israeli Jews to establish outposts in Gaza, with the organisation’s leader, Daniella Weiss, stating, “[W]e must say in a clear voice . . . Gaza belongs to the people of Israel . . . We must begin to settle in Gaza now.”

To justify the displacement of Palestinians due to settlement expansion, some Zionists outright deny the existence of Palestinians, a sentiment popularised in 1969 when then-Prime Minister Golda Meir claimed that “There were no such thing as Palestinians.”

Middle East Eye and agencies, Al Jazeera and agencies, Maghrebi.org