The Movement for Settlement in Southern Lebanon has published a map with “the new Hebrew names for the settlements of Southern Lebanon,” based on the current names of the Lebanese towns and villages.
The Israeli movement seeks to promote the conquest, ethnic cleansing, and settlement of southern Lebanon by Israeli Jews, just as Israel has been doing in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The map was published amid the Israeli army's massive bombing campaign in southern Lebanon that has killed over 500 people in just three days and displaced tens of thousands more who have fled north toward Beirut.
Jewish Currents reports that in the movement's worldview, “the Israeli settlement of southern Lebanon will begin with a war with Hezbollah – which they view not as a last resort barring a diplomatic solution, but as the only reasonable path forward.”
Political analyst James Dorsey notes that the movement claims a Biblical justification for the conquest of Lebanon in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 3, verse 25. As Moses appeals to God to allow him to enter the Promised Land, he asks, “Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan – that fine hill country and Lebanon.”
Uri Tzafon (“Awaken North”), an Israeli group demanding the conquest and Jewish settlement of Lebanon, sent drones and balloons into southern Lebanon in June carrying eviction notices to the region's residents.
“The announcements make clear to the residents that they are in the Land of Israel, which belongs to the Jewish people, and that they are required to evacuate immediately,” the group said in a statement.
Dorsey notes further that “Uri Tzafon echoes a principle that is becoming more prominent among Israelis, including soldiers serving in Gaza.”
In November 2023, as the bombing and invasion of Gaza was well underway, Captain Amichai Friedman, the rabbi of the Nahal brigade's military base, stated Israel's intention to not only take Gaza but Lebanon as well. “This land is ours. All of it. Including Gaza. Including Lebanon. The entire Promised Land,” he told a group of soldiers.