Occupied Jerusalem- In conjunction with the expansion of the occupation army’s aggression against Lebanon, launching raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut, and the assassination of Hezbollah leaders, most notably its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, voices rose in Israel calling for “settlement” in southern Lebanon under the pretext of restoring security and safety to the Israelis in the Galilee.
Associations and movements, most notably the Uri Hatzafon movement for settlement in southern Lebanon, called for exploiting the war on Hezbollah and “occupying Lebanon on the grounds that it is part of the Greater Land of Israel.”
Israeli political and military leaders employed biblical religious discourse in the war on multiple fronts, which was prominent in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech at the United Nations.
Settlement plans
The “Ori Hatzafon” (Skins of the North) movement launched its activity on April 12, 2024, in order to enhance Israeli collective awareness and promote – in the reality of fighting and war – the idea of reviving “Lebanon as a prosperous Jewish homeland as part of the Greater Land of Israel,” according to Eliyahu Ben. Asher is one of the founders of the movement.
The movement raised its own flag with a cedar tree planted in the ground in the middle and framed by the Star of David, as its members wanted to “invade southern Lebanon as a first step to the borders of Turkey in the north and the Euphrates in Iraq in the east,” according to Ibn Asher.
It was stated in the articles “The movement’s propaganda on its social media platforms.”How are we going to settle the new Northern Galilee?” At the height of the northern campaign, members of the movement plan to invade the lands occupied by the army and “establish Jewish settlements there and impose facts on the ground.”
According to the movement’s founding concept, awareness about Lebanon was immersed in a coma and deep slumber among the Israeli public in general, and also among the Zionist Jewish public, which believes in the concepts of the “Jewish homeland” from a religious and biblical perspective.
The idea of establishing the movement goes back to the “religious Zionism” movement, headed by the minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and it crystallized after the killing of soldier Sokol (24 years old) in Gaza on January 22, 2024, where he was the godfather of reviving the idea of resettlement in southern Lebanon, and promoted it among the soldiers. During the war – according to the biblical texts that Lebanon is “part of Greater Israel.”
It continued its activity and recruiting activists in the months that witnessed the exchange of bombing and fire on both sides of the border between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, until it held the first conference on June 17, 2024, and intended for the conference to be virtual to ensure the participation of Jews from all over the world.
Settlers from the occupied West Bank also participated in the conference, the majority of whom were from the right-wing camp and the New Religious Zionism movement, as it expanded its activity among the Israeli public through awareness campaigns about the idea of settlement in Lebanon in order to restore security and safety to the residents and towns of the Galilee.
Greeds
But in the “Uri Hatzafon” movement, they deal less with the Israelis displaced from the Jewish towns and abandoned lands in the Upper Galilee and the border areas with Lebanon, and they direct their eyes and ambitions beyond the borders, with the aim of absorbing the idea of Jewish settlement in southern Lebanon and convincing the Israelis that this brings security.
The conference was addressed by Haggai Ben Artzi, the brother of Sara Netanyahu, the Prime Minister’s wife, who claimed in the past that Israel should be a state governed by the Torah and the Holy Bible, and called on those Jews who want democracy to immigrate to the United States.
Also speaking were Amid Cohen, an Israeli army reserve officer and executive director of the Tikva Foundation, which runs biblical educational projects and is one of the donors to the church forum, and Judith Katsoper, who calls for applying sovereignty to the West Bank, and Daniela Weiss, head of the Nahala settlement movement and leader of the settlement movement in the Gaza Strip. .
According to the movement’s vision, “The Land of Israel will remain its land, even if the state decides to withdraw from it. It will also remain its land even when we forget it. The land haunts us as much as we try to escape from it.”
Its founding document added, “This is what is happening in Gaza, and this is what must also happen in Lebanon. Israel knows that victory is the taking of lands from the enemy. It is the land of the Jewish homeland, whether in Gaza, Lebanon, or the Temple Mount – Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
The promotion of the movement’s vision came at a time when the Israeli army continued its attacks on southern Lebanon, targeting civilians and forcing them into forced displacement, and the movement expanded its activity among Israelis, the right-wing camp, and the religious parties participating in Netanyahu’s government coalition.
Many rabbis of religious Zionism also joined its events and activities, most notably Rabbi Isaac Ginzburg, who called for settlement in Lebanon on the grounds that it is “part of the Greater Land of Israel,” according to Biblical teachings and Talmudic texts.
Political goals
Commenting on this, Khaled Zabarqa, a lawyer specializing in Jerusalem and settlement issues, says, “There is a broad current in Israeli society that adopts biblical religious interpretations of the reality and situation we are living in now, as well as Talmudic prophecies that are based on the news and events of the end times.” He added to Tel Aviv Tribune Net that these biblical interpretations have become part of political plans and projects within the approach of the current government headed by Netanyahu in the multi-front war.
In his opinion, the various coalition vehicles that rely on the right-wing parties, various religious movements, and settlers are competing with each other to expand what is called the biblical religious concept of the “decisive stage.”
Zabarqa explained that the absolute victory that Netanyahu is hinting at is essentially biblical religious vocabulary related to the concept of this stage according to Talmudic interpretations, as they are trying to apply and impose it on reality, and they believe that things are moving towards the assigned goal, which is “establishing Greater Israel.”
Regarding calls for settlement in southern Lebanon, Zabarqa says that Lebanon is viewed as “part of Greater Israel,” and this is according to the Zionist religious concept, and therefore with the expansion of the war, “we are hearing this religious discourse with a political, legal, and security cover, which is in harmony with the statements of the presidential candidate.” American Donald Trump, who said that Israel is small and should think about expanding its borders.”
He reviewed the Jewish religious ambitions in Lebanon, saying that Netanyahu, in the context of employing the biblical dimension, established a special committee of Jewish rabbis that is concerned with the news and events of the end times according to the biblical concept.
Zabarqa pointed out that this committee provides interpretations and consultation to Netanyahu, who is seen as a biblical religious name, and “it is related to the appearance of the Antichrist, according to their religious interpretations of end-time events, and on this basis Netanyahu enjoys support from the Jews despite the atrocities he commits.”
