20 years after Disengagement, majority say Gaza should be resettled — poll

In the Israel Hayom survey, most also said the Disengagement led to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led massacre.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

As the 20th anniversary of the Disengagement fast approaches, an Israel Hayom survey found Thursday that a majority believe it was a terrible mistake, one that led to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre, and that the Gaza Strip should be resettled with Jews.

Fully 76% of the 510 respondents polled said that Israel erred in carrying out a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, when the IDF forcibly expelled more than 8,000 Jews from 20 villages and one town in the coastal enclave.

At the time, the government’s decision was hugely controversial, with polls showing support for it ranging between 50%-60%, and opponents warning repeatedly that if the settlers and IDF left, it would lead to a huge uptick of Palestinian terrorism.

Their fears came true as Hamas soon took over the Strip and began firing thousands of rockets over the years, mostly at Israel’s border communities, as well as launching arson balloons that destroyed tens of thousands of dunams of forests and cropland.

The terrorists also gained the freedom to smuggle in vast amounts of weaponry through Gaza’s border with Egypt, train tens of thousands of soldiers, and build a vast terror tunnel network — all of which nearly became a strategic threat to the State of Israel almost 21 months ago.

A majority of respondents felt that there was a direct connection between the Disengagement and what Israelis call “the Black Sabbath,” with 56% agreeing that there would have been less of a chance of the Oct. 7 attack had the Disengagement not been carried out.

A follow-up question of whether Jews should return to settle the Strip garnered more of a split, but still a majority of 52% answered “yes.”

While this is an idea that has been championed by the national religious sector in Israel, with the poll showing that 67% agreed with it, the survey noted that a whopping 83% of the ultra-Orthodox community were in favor of resettlement, and 29% of the secular public approved of it as well.

Fully 21% of the latter also answered that they “didn’t know,” suggesting they could be convinced of the merits of such a plan on a strategic basis if not a religious one.

In addition, even a fifth of those who categorized themselves as “left-wing” thought Jews should return to Gaza – all of which, the report said, proved that the concept is not relegated to a fringe element in society.

The survey also included a question whose answer should be of interest to all those countries now saying they will recognize a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, which the Palestinians have always maintained would be Jew-free.

When asked if they thought that a disengagement from the territories of Judea and Samaria was a future possibility, 64% responded that it was impossible.