The chareidi public has traditionally played little to no role in the struggle over settlement in Judea and Samaria, and certainly not in Gaza. These questions have generally been identified with the Religious Zionist sector, especially in light of past rulings by leading Torah authorities who supported territorial concessions in exchange for peace agreements.

In recent years, however, a new phenomenon has begun to take shape. Several unregulated outposts associated with chareidi groups have quietly emerged. Across Judea and Samaria, five settlement points are now inhabited by chareidi families and youths.

More recently, a chareidi headquarters has been established with the explicit goal of creating a chareidi settlement in Gaza. The group operates within the framework of the right-wing Nachala movement, which is largely identified with the Religious Zionist community. In the wake of the war, however, the movement decided to form a unit defined specifically as a chareidi, “mehadrin” framework.

The Nachala movement works publicly to build awareness and support for settlement in Gaza through media campaigns, solidarity marches, conferences, and public statements of support from right-wing ministers and Knesset members. At the same time, it is quietly organizing six separate settlement nuclei that are meant to move into Gaza on “the day of command,” establishing roughly six communities.

One of these is the chareidi nucleus, which consists of approximately 40 families who have declared their readiness to move onto the land immediately.

“The families are ready tomorrow morning to go up to Gaza,” says Pinchas Farber, who heads the chareidi headquarters. Addressing the fact that chareidim are taking part in a struggle typically associated with the knitted-kippah sector, he says: “The chareidi public is part of the State of Israel. As a ציבור, it should join this struggle, but every chareidi individual also needs to ask himself whether he wants to see another massacre.”

Among the participating families is the Horowitz family from Beit Shemesh. The father, Yedidya, explains their willingness to relocate to Gaza. “We see this as a mission. We will not do this recklessly. When we go up to Gaza, it won’t be just a few tents—it will be a community, with buildings and institutions.”

“In recent years, there has been a growing sense within the chareidi public of belonging to what is happening to the Jewish people,” he continues. “When it comes from a Torah perspective, from a desire to fulfill Hashem’s will, chareidim also need to take part. And regardless of that, if there is no settlement in Gaza, Jews will continue to be slaughtered.”

The headquarters focuses primarily on gatherings among the families themselves, most of whom approach the group independently. At the same time, they are working to recruit additional chareidi families, including through small home-based meetings and information booths.

The organizers acknowledge that at present it is not feasible to set up outreach stands in Bnei Brak, due to concerns about disruptions from extremist elements. However, they do not rule out doing so in the future, with the goal of increasing exposure within the broader chareidi public.

Several weeks ago, the group organized a special Shabbos program for chareidi yeshiva bochurim near Gaza. During the Shabbos, about 20 youths stayed in the area, slept in tents, and strengthened their resolve to take hold of the land.

“As a chareidi bochur, it feels very natural to me to act for the sake of settling Gaza. Gaza is an inseparable part of Eretz Yisroel,” says Yisrael S., who participated in the Shabbos. “During Shabbos there were very moving tefillos and joint learning sessions facing Gaza. It was inspiring to see more and more bochurim joining the effort and understanding that Gaza is an inseparable part of us and that we have an obligation to settle it.”

The Shabbos gathering came to the attention of the newspaper HaPeles, the mouthpiece of the Yerushalmi faction, which launched a sharp attack on the initiative. Under the headline “Another Delusional Project,” the paper reviewed the advertisement inviting the chareidi public to spend Shabbos near Gaza and claimed that the plans to settle Gaza were “far-reaching schemes.”

“This is another development that illustrates the ideological bankruptcy seeping into the fringes of the chareidi public,” the paper wrote. It accused certain chareidi politicians, saying that their “identification with settler circles and Religious Zionism” enabled initiatives such as the Gaza Shabbos to take place.

The question of rabbinic support remains a particularly sensitive issue. At present, there is no chareidi rav publicly calling for settlement in Gaza, and in the past, leading Torah authorities spoke in favor of relinquishing territory. According to Farber, however, this should not prevent a chareidi individual from taking part in the struggle.

“This is an existential question, not an ideological one,” he argued. “It goes beyond whether we are for or against the state. This is critical. If we don’t act, it will happen again. We would be happy to have the agreement of the Moatzos Gedolei Hatorah, but before that, action is required,” he added, his eyes shining.

{Matzav.com}