In 2005, Israeli society was riven by the unilateral disengagement from Gaza, which involved the withdrawal of Israel’s military presence in Gaza and the dissolution of the Israeli settlements in the region known as Gush Katif, along with four settlements in the northern West Bank. The evacuation of some 9,000 Jewish settlers from the twenty-five settlements, and in particular the complete removal of an Israel’s presence from the Gaza Strip, was a watershed moment in Israeli history, both because it represented a response to domestic and international calls for a peaceful solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and because it flew in the face of the belief that settlement expansion was the fulfillment of a messianic prophecy – a belief that had driven the settler movement for decades (Eiran 2009; Shechory & Laufer 2011; Zertal & Eldar 2007).