Col. (res.) Hezi Nehama, former commander of the Menashe Regional Brigade, asserted on Tuesday in a radio interview with Yinon Magal on 103FM that former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot sought in 2017 to advance the transfer of land from Area C to Areas A and B as “confidence-building measures” toward the ‘Palestinians’.
1+Nehama recounted that the discussion occurred toward the end of the terror wave known as the “lone-wolf intifada,” while the two were standing on a hilltop in Sa-Nur. According to Nehama, he had proposed to Eizenkot that Israel reassert its presence in the region from which the communities of Ganim, Kadim, Sa-Nur, and Homesh were evacuated during the 2005 Disengagement plan.
“Gadi Eizenkot portrays himself as straightforward and right-leaning. I was the Menashe brigade commander,” Nehama said. “I stood with Gadi Eizenkot at the end of the intifada, what was termed the lone-wolf intifada, in 2017. He was chief of staff, I was brigade commander, and we were standing on the hilltop in Sa-Nur.”
1+According to Nehama, he turned to Eizenkot and told him: “Chief of Staff, in 2005 we removed the communities of Ganim, Kadim, Sa-Nur, and Homesh from here. It is time to restore our foothold here, because this is Area C.” However, Nehama claimed that Eizenkot’s response was entirely the opposite: “He grabs the head of Central Command and the division commander and says to them in these exact words: ‘This is the place where we can grant more benefits to the ‘Palestinians’. We can take more Area C lands and transfer them to become Area A and B territories.'”
Radio host Yinon Magal pressed to clarify the account, asking: “He was saying to convince the Prime Minister to concede more territory, to transfer it into Areas A and B?” Nehama confirmed: “Yes. Confidence-building measures following the lone-wolf intifada. That is the man.”