20 years later, Israelis ask if the Gaza exit backfired — and if it is time to return

TEL AVIV, Israel — For many years, hundreds of Jewish settlers lived within the Gaza Strip, protected by troopers. However in the summertime of 2005, the Israeli authorities made a historic determination to withdraw all of them.

The Israeli prime minister on the time, Ariel Sharon, pushed by means of the unilateral withdrawal as a part of a “road map” for peace superior by what was often known as the Center East Quartet: the US, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

At present, 20 years later, Israelis are fiercely debating whether or not that call in the end paved the way in which for the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel — and whether or not Israel ought to reestablish settlements in Gaza, as some ministers within the present authorities suggest.

Then and now, Israeli settlements within the Palestinian territories have drawn broad worldwide criticism. The United Nations and plenty of international locations have condemned the settlements as a violation of worldwide legislation, though Israel disputes this.

I used to be there as a younger reporter in 2005, embedded with Israeli troops tasked with finishing up the evacuation of some 8,000 settlers for what grew to become often known as Israel’s disengagement from Gaza.

The scenes had been chaotic: Israeli settler households had been weeping, troopers had been carrying youngsters out of their properties, and younger youngsters had been working to the seashore to get away from them.

Though most residents of the 21 settlements adopted the official orders to evacuate by an August deadline, some refused — and Israeli troops needed to pressure them to go.

Following the completion of the Israeli withdrawal in September 2005, Palestinians responded with scenes of jubilation, coming into components of Gaza for the primary time in 38 years. Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas planted a Palestinian flag within the soil of an deserted settlement and referred to as it “a day of happiness and joy,” as NPR reported.

There was a mixture of bitter feelings, too. Teams of Palestinians destroyed synagogues in Gaza that Israeli authorities, in a last-minute determination, had left standing.

“The longing only grows stronger”

“Israel’s national interest was not to be in Gaza”

Dov Weisglass, Prime Minister Sharon’s closest aide on the time, helped plan the withdrawal and sees issues otherwise. “Sharon never concealed his opinion on this matter — that the only solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is separation. In the long term, Israel’s national interest was not to be in Gaza. Every casualty there — soldier or settler — was a waste,” he says.

Weisglass says officers at all times feared Hamas would possibly ultimately seize management of Gaza. However holding settlers there, he argues, would have been far worse. “Without disengagement, I’ll tell you what would have happened. Those thousands of Israelis in Gaza would have faced an Oct. 7 scenario not in 2023, but in 2008.”

He provides that Hamas was later in a position to strengthen itself financially — first with help from the Palestinian Authority, after which with Qatari money that flowed with Israel’s approval. That, Weisglass argues, “allowed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar to construct a formidable military of 40 to 50,000 fighters.”

Half of Israelis help new Gaza settlements

Nonetheless, nostalgia for Gaza settlements runs deep. A latest ballot within the conservative newspaper Israel Hayom discovered that 52% of Israelis help rebuilding settlements there. Weisglass dismisses the concept. “It’s not serious. Israel doesn’t have the manpower, the energy, or the resources to protect such a project. It will not happen,” he says.

Yohanan Zoref, a senior Israeli researcher of Palestinian affairs at Israel’s Institute for Nationwide Safety Research, says the disengagement additionally empowered Hamas to forged itself because the victor. “They began to talk about the resistance as the main power in the Palestinian arena, because the resistance is the power who pushed out Israel from Gaza,” he says.

Zoref argues that the Oct. 7 assault was much less in regards to the disengagement and extra about what adopted.

“If you ask me if there is any connection between the disengagement and what happened in the 7th of October, I will tell you it depends on whom you are asking, because it’s a political question. From my point of view, there is no connection between the two,” he says.

“Since 2009, there are governments in Israel that express their disagreement to make any kind of compromises or to reach to any kind of negotiation, and they used to say it  approximately every day that there is no way to make peace.”

He provides, “Also, you have to remember five years before the disengagement, more than five times the people were killed in Gaza and outside of Gaza than 10 years after the disengagement. What does it mean? It means that the existence of the settlements inside Gaza was a bigger threat on the Israeli side than after the disengagement.”

“Real estate bonanza”

All through the Gaza warfare, some Israeli leaders have overtly referred to as for the resettlement of the territory, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated final yr it was “not realistic.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — a hard-line opponent of the 2005 Gaza disengagement — has argued there’s a “practical work plan” for settlements there after the warfare. This week, Smotrich stated Israel has already performed the “demolition phase,” and {that a} plan to show the enclave into “a real estate bonanza” is being mentioned with the Trump administration, in keeping with information studies.

Many former Gaza settlers — like Esther Kaufman-Yarchi — cherish the hope they may return to what they name dwelling.

“My children know that one day, we’ll go back. I still keep a bottle of sand from Netzarim. The idea is to scatter it when we return home.”

Not like Weisglass, Zoref believes there’s an actual probability that Israel may set up new settlements in Gaza. “I think it’s awful for us, but I cannot see that there is a real power that can prevent it if there will be no election in the near future. I don’t think that there is any power that can change it,” he says.

For now, Israelis are divided on whether or not that’s the proper transfer after the Gaza warfare — or whether or not it is a harmful fantasy.