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‘AS MUCH AND AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE’: ISRAELI SETTLERS EYE LAND
IN SYRIA, LEBANON  
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Illy Pe’ery
December 12, 2024
972 Magazine [[link removed]]

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_ With the Israeli army advancing into Syria following Assad's fall,
a group promoting settlements in Lebanon is casting its gaze eastward.
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Israeli soldiers from the army’s 210th Division seen inside Syrian
territory., IDF Spokesperson's Unit

 

Within hours of the fall of the Assad regime
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forces were already pushing into Syrian territory, conquering the
Syrian side of Mount Hermon/Jabal A-Shaykh and the buffer zone between
Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that has been in place
for more than half a century. But the army were not the only ones
quick to react; so, too, was the Israeli settler movement.

“We have to conquer and destroy. As much as possible, and as quickly
as possible,” wrote one member of Uri Tsafon — a group founded
earlier this year to promote Israeli settlement of southern Lebanon
— in the organization’s WhatsApp group. “We need to check
according to the new laws in Syria whether Israelis are allowed to
invest in real estate and start buying land there,” another member
wrote. In another settler WhatsApp group, members shared maps of Syria
and tried to identify potential areas for settlement.

The Nachala movement — led by Daniella Weiss, who has been
spearheading efforts in recent months to resettle Gaza — expressed a
similar sentiment in a post
[[link removed]] on
Facebook: “Whoever still thinks it’s possible to leave our fate in
the hands of a foreign actor — forsakes Israel’s security!” it
said. “Jewish settlement is the only thing that will bring about
regional stability and security for the State of Israel, along with a
stable economy, national resilience, and deterrence. 

“In Gaza, in Lebanon, in the entire Golan Heights including the
‘Syrian Plateau,’ and in the entire Mount Hermon,” it added —
attaching a biblical map titled “Abraham’s Borders,” in which
Israel’s territory includes the entirety of Lebanon as well as most
of Syria and Iraq. 

This is not mere talk; these groups mean business. Nachala
has already mapped out
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it plans to build new Jewish settlements across the Gaza Strip, and
claims that more than 700 families have committed to move when the
opportunity arises (Daniella Weiss herself has already been
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Gaza with a military escort to scout out potential locations). And
last week, Uri Tsafon, which has bided its time over the past
year, made its first attempt
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a land grab in southern Lebanon — where Israeli soldiers are still
present following the ceasefire deal.

On Dec. 5, the group’s founder, Amos Azaria, who is a computer
science professor at Ariel University in the occupied West Bank,
crossed the border into Lebanon along with six families in an attempt
to establish an outpost. They reached the area of Maroun A-Ras, around
two kilometers into Lebanese territory, and planted cedar trees in
memory of an Israeli soldier who fell in battle in Lebanon two months
ago. Several hours passed before the Israeli army evicted them and
forced them back into Israel. (In response to The Hottest Place in
Hell’s request for comment on this incident, the Israeli police said
that according to the army, no Israeli civilians had crossed into
Lebanon.)

Even back in June, at Uri Tsafon’s “First Lebanon Conference
[[link removed]],” held on
Zoom, members were already talking about settling Syria. Dr. Hagi Ben
Artzi, Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother-in-law and a member of the
group, told attendees
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borders should be those promised to the Jewish people in biblical
times: “We don’t want even one meter beyond the Euphrates River.
We are humble. [But] what we were promised, we must conquer.”

And with the fall of the Assad regime and the advance of Israeli
troops into Syrian territory, they were eager to seize the
opportunity. “We called on the government to capture as much as
possible of what was Syrian territory,” Azaria told the Israeli
magazine The Hottest Place in Hell. “The rebels are exactly [the
same as] Hamas. Maybe now they’re making nice noises, but ultimately
they are Sunnis who will find the common enemy, which is us. We need
to do as much as possible now, while it’s possible.”

On Dec. 11, a small group of Israeli settlers claimed
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into an area of Syrian territory now under Israeli military control,
where they filmed themselves praying. When asked about the incident,
the Israeli army said that it “there is no known crossing of the
border by the people in question,” and that the video is “being
examined by the relevant authorities.”

הדפסת ולימוד ספר התניא בבית חב"ד החדש
בכפר חדר שבחבל הבשן (סוריה) המשוחרר.
זו ארצנו כולה! לכבוש וליישב!!
pic.twitter.com/hyck0n36Vm [[link removed]]

— עמישב מלט (@amishav_) December 11, 2024
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‘The most important thing is to be on the other side of the fence’

Uri Tsafon takes its name
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a biblical verse calling to “Awaken, O north.” Its website
describes Lebanon as “a state that does not really exist or
function,” and claims that the true expanse of Israel’s northern
Galilee stretches as far north as Lebanon’s Litani River — which
Israeli forces had reached just as the recent ceasefire agreement came
into effect, having forcibly displaced tens of thousands of residents
of southern Lebanese villages in the process. 

“We [started off with] quieter activities,” Azaria told The
Hottest Place in Hell. “We called on the government and the army to
go to war in the north … [and] we drove to Mount Meron under the air
force base and did reconnaissance toward Lebanon.”

But last week’s attempt to establish an outpost in southern Lebanon
marked the group’s entry into a new phase of activity that aims to
force the government’s hand. “The goal was and still is to
establish a settlement in Lebanon,” Azaria said. “We are not
waiting for the state to tell us, ‘Come’ — we are working to
make it happen.” 

According to Azaria, the movement already boasts thousands of members
“who are very eager and interested” in its activities. Last
week’s action was not advertised in advance, because “[the army]
would have blocked us and not allowed us to enter.” And they
certainly didn’t face much resistance: “The gate was open and we
just drove in,” he said.

Israeli settlers from the group Uri Tsafon establishing an outpost in
southern Lebanon, December 5, 2024. (Uri Tsafon/taken from The Hottest
Place in Hell’s website)

Azaria isn’t worried that they didn’t succeed; in fact, he sees
their eviction as the first step in a longer-term plan of action that
has characterized the settler movement since its inception more than
half a century ago. 

“The first time we’re evicted, we go,” he explained. “The
second time, we stay longer. The [third] time, we stay the night.
That’s how we’ll continue until there is a settlement. At first,
[the army] demolishes it, and then they reach an agreement that there
will be one settlement, and that’s it. In the meantime, we start
working on the next settlement. It may not be realistic that the state
will build a settlement [of its own accord], but that doesn’t mean
the state has to demolish a community that we built.  

“In the first stage, we’ll settle where we can,” he continued.
“There’s no interest in a specific location; the most important
thing is to be on the other side of the fence. We have to fight the
taboo of the border that was established by France and England 100
years ago. We will live on the Lebanese border, God willing, and if we
are there, the border will move north and the army will guard it.

“Just as the army is fighting in both Gaza and the north, it’s the
same with settlements: we have to settle everywhere,” Azaria went
on. “In Gaza, there is Nachala and several other bodies [promoting
settlement]. In the north, we are the only movement that really deals
with this right now. Nachala does it more with permits. We operate in
a more ‘spearhead’ manner.”

And Azaria is confident that support will come from the political
echelon. “When I founded [Uri Tsafon], people didn’t talk about
settling southern Lebanon at all,” he explained. “We’re changing
the discourse. We’re in contact with Knesset members. I assume that
just as it took time for them to agree to talk about settlement in
Gaza, it will also take time to start talking about settlement in
Lebanon. [Likud MK] Ariel Kallner mentioned something. [So did Otzma
Yehudit MK] Limor Son Har-Melech. Slowly, more and more people dare to
talk about it.”

_A version of this article first appeared in Hebrew on The Hottest
Place in Hell. Read it __here_
[[link removed]]_. _

_ILLY PE’ERY is an investigative reporter and associate editor at
the independent Israeli online magazine The Hottest Place in Hell._

_Our team at +972 has been devastated by the horrific events of this
latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented
onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged
Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas
in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and
communities facing this violence. _

_We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The
bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to
engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed
by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on
Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is
ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence
Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies._

_This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the
past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and
militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized
siege on Gaza._

_We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need
your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity
of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians
and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the
fight of their lives._

_CAN WE COUNT ON YOUR SUPPORT 
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PALESTINIAN AND ISRAELI JOURNALISTS, ACTIVISTS, AND THINKERS CAN
REPORT ON AND ANALYZE WHAT IS HAPPENING, GUIDED BY HUMANISM, EQUALITY,
AND JUSTICE. JOIN US._

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