A bill seeking to cancel provisions of the Disengagement Law banning Israelis from the Gaza Strip will come up for debate this Sunday at the Ministerial Committee for Legislation. The bill, advanced by Knesset Deputy Speaker Limor Son Har-Melech of the Jewish Power party, aims to remove from Israeli law the prohibition on Jewish presence and movement in the area, correcting what she calls a historic injustice.
The move is a direct continuation of Son Har-Melech’s earlier initiative, together with partners in the Land of Israel Caucus, which led to the cancellation of the Disengagement Law in northern Samaria in early 2023. Following that amendment, the communities of Homesh and Sa-Nur returned to the map, and efforts are now underway to renew Israeli communities in Ganim and Kadim as well.
Now Son Har-Melech is seeking to complete the process and apply the same principle to the Gaza Strip by canceling the legal ban on Israeli presence there. The bill stipulates that the sections prohibiting Israelis from entering will no longer apply to Gaza, a first step toward restoring Jewish communities in the Strip.
“More than twenty years after the expulsion from Gush Katif and northern Samaria, the time has come to complete the correction of the historic injustice,” Son Har-Melech said. “The events of October 7th demonstrated even to those who supported the plan that withdrawals and expelling Jews do not bring security. The Zionist, moral, and national response to the massacre and the attempt to uproot us from our land is to strengthen our hold on it.”
Son Har-Melech added that “the bill is a clear statement that there are no areas in the Land of Israel from which Jews are barred from entering. This is a first step toward a full correction of the Disengagement and the restoration of Jewish settlement to the places from which its residents were uprooted.”