Omer Dostri Calls for Expelling Palestinians and Seizing Gaza

August 5th, 2024 - by Jonathan Lis / Haaretz

Netanyahu’s New Spokesperson Calls for
Transfer of Palestinians and Settling in Gaza
Jonathan Lis / Haaretz

(August 4, 2024) — Dr. Omer Dostri holds a PhD in Political Science and the belief that ‘Israel must order the rapid establishment of Israeli settlements in many of the areas it occupies’ in Gaza. In his new role, he will be responsible for the communications division of the Prime Minister’s Office

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Dr. Omer Dostri as his new official spokesperson. Dostri has publically shared his support for the voluntary transfer of Gazans, Jewish settlement of the Gaza Strip, and opposition to a Palestinian state. He will be responsible for leading the communications division in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Dostri, 37, has been a panelist on the right-wing Channel 14, and regularly shares his thoughts in articles and on social media. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Bar-Ilan University, and is a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and a member of the “Habitchonistim” movement, which believes “Israel’s security is key to its existence as the national homeland of the Jewish people,” according to its website.

In his writings, Dostri has described the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state as a “disaster for Israel.” Writing in January, Dostri said, “There is no victory over Hamas without three basic conditions: military occupation of the entire Gaza Strip, military and civilian control of the area, and encouragement of voluntary migration of Gazans out of the strip.”

In December, he called for the Egyptian president to be promised “an economic and perhaps even security package” to agree to the transfer of “Gaza refugees to Sinai, even if only temporarily.”

Further to these positions, Dostri wrote on his X account, and in an article published in Makor Rishon, that Israel should resettle the Gaza Strip. “As great and significant as the risk to the lives of IDF soldiers may be, it is no longer possible to avoid the need to decisively defeat Hamas and occupy the Gaza Strip,” he wrote in the article.

“Israel must order the rapid establishment of Israeli settlements in many of the areas it occupies, especially those close to the current border.” He explained that “more than killing terrorist operatives and senior leaders, more than destroying buildings and infrastructure, more than capturing prisoners – the extremist Islamic enemy will be struck down and fall to the ground when Israeli settlements are built on the ruins of its territory. This will be the true, significant, and most deterrent Israeli victory.”

In November, he criticized the Israeli government’s failure to manage Hamas. “Israel has completely failed in its political approach,” Dostri wrote. “This misconception has been shared by all Israeli governments since 2007.” According to him, “Israeli governments believed that it was possible to manage Hamas and reach understandings with it, even indirectly, for common interests such as stability and economic prosperity in the Gaza Strip.”

Additionally, Dostri has said that the protest movement against the judicial overhaul is a “delusional, loud, and anarchistic minority that disrupts public order, violates freedom of movement, and acts as if they own the country,” as well as holds Israeli citizens “hostage.” He also accused Channel 13 and Channel 12 news of whitewashing “calls for refusal and anarchism.”

In March, he criticized the American administration in an article on Ynet, claiming that it “threw Israel under the bus” after abstaining from a vote on a UN Security Council resolution for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. Dostri argued that “as the war continued, the Biden administration changed its approach to a negative stance towards Israel.” He clarified then that “Israel is not a banana republic managed by foreign elements.”

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