“The Torah says that while we are in golus the land should lie empty”
Where does the Torah say that? What the Torah does say is that since Shmita wasn’t kept during most of the first Beis Hamikdash period, the land would receive its due rest when we were sent into exile for seventy years. Regardless, the opinion of the Satmar Rav, zt”l was categorically rejected by the vast majority of Torah observant Jews and their leaders. In addition to religious Zionists, huge numbers of chassidim from Belz, Ger, Vizhnitz, Chabad, etc., Sephardim, as well as the large yeshiva communities of Mir, Chevron, Ponevezh, Brisk, etc., currently live there. Torah observant Jews cast almost one million ballots, comprising nearly 25% of the votes during the Knesset elections three months ago.
They and their leaders are not concerned with any prohibition against living there “en masse” and they’re there to stay; even the Brisker.