[News] Israel is still planning to displace even more Palestinians

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190910-israel-is-still-planning-to-displace-even-more-palestinians/ 



  Israel is still planning to displace even more Palestinians

Dr Adnan Abu Amer - September 10, 2019
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Since the 1948 Nakba when Israel was created in the historic land of 
Palestine, which resulted in the ethnic cleansing of more than 700,000 
Palestinians from their homeland, successive Israeli governments have 
continued to propose political and demographic plans for the 
displacement of more Palestinians from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and 
from within Israel itself. This is all with the aim of creating an 
ethnically pure “Jewish state” emptied of its indigenous population.

Although the majority of these plans were destined to fail, this hasn’t 
deterred Israel. A few days ago, another plan was unveiled which seeks 
to encourage Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip. Israel will open its 
airports to facilitate this migration and make other travel arrangements 
to whichever countries are willing to host them. A senior Israeli 
official stressed that this matter was proposed several times in cabinet 
meetings, and the government has tried to convince some countries to 
host Palestinians, but without any success.

Palestinian and Israeli reactions suggested that this is related to the 
US “deal of the century”. If it is, why did Israel reveal the details 
now, and which countries have been approached to take Palestinians from 
Gaza? There are also questions about whether this would be considered as 
a resettlement of Palestinian refugees, or “merely” emptying Gaza of its 
inhabitants. What is Hamas’s position on this, and the PA’s in Ramallah? 
Indeed, what do ordinary Palestinians think about it.

According to Israel’s Minister of Public Security, Gilad Erdan, the 
government has discussed the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza on 
five occasions, but it was felt to be unfeasible. The leader of the New 
Right party and former Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, believes that 
such displacement is at the top of Israeli interests. She has called for 
anyone who wants to migrate from Gaza to be allowed to do so. Apparently 
this is because she believes that Gaza is overpopulated, so it is time 
for Israel to wake up and let people go.

The Palestinian factions have condemned this displacement policy as very 
dangerous. It should be seen, they insist, in the context of the 
eventual “transfer” of all Palestinians from their homeland. The theory 
is that Israel, with US support, wants Palestinians to migrate and 
obtain other nationalities so that they forget about their rights as 
Palestinians. It is yet more ethnic cleansing by any other name.

Like its predecessors, this Israeli plan will also fail, because 
Palestinian perseverance will continue to come to the fore, despite the 
unjust siege and Israel’s shoot-to-kill policy, ongoing displacement and 
house demolitions. They will remain steadfast until they achieve 
liberation and fulfil their legitimate right of return.

The real danger to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip is the repetition 
of the mass expulsion that occurred in 1948, but this can only be 
achieved through a comprehensive war against Palestinian civilians in 
the territory, under the diplomatic, political and military cover of the 
United States and some Arab countries. This would make the Rafah Border 
Crossing the main route to safety in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Israel’s 
thinking is that the Palestinians can leave Gaza for the Sinai, ending 
at stroke any chance of a Palestinian state, or even quasi-state, coming 
into being and posing a strategic threat.

It is a fact that the Zionist ideologues who planned and created the 
state of Israel always knew that they would have to displace the 
indigenous population in Palestine. The first Prime Minister of Israel, 
David Ben Gurion, believed that the Arabs shouldn’t be there, as did 
American Jews. He made it his objective to ensure that the Palestinians 
live in an Arab country.

Moreover, Israel’s Operation Yohanan (1949-1953) intended to provide 
farms for “Arab Israelis” in Argentina, specifically Christians living 
in the Galilee. This was followed by a plan to provide jobs for 
Palestinians in Europe, which needed workers after World War Two. It 
received support under the US Marshall Plan, but neither plan was 
implemented and both had disappeared by the mid-1950s.

Similar proposals emerged after the 1967 Six Day War, geared towards the 
Palestinians in the newly-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 1968, 
the Israeli Foreign Ministry prepared a plan whereby the movement of 
Palestinians from Gaza to the West Bank, and some to Jordan, would be 
facilitated, leading to their onward migration to other parts of the 
Arab world. The intention was for this to appear to be spontaneous, 
rather than on the orders of Israel. The “El Arish Plan” included the 
development of projects such as water desalination plants, energy 
production and factories that would provide jobs for the Palestinians 
who would move to the Egyptian-Sinai town, but they did not leave.

Also in 1968, a US Congressional Committee considered a plan for the 
voluntary displacement of 200,000 Palestinians from Gaza to a number of 
countries, including West Germany, Argentina, Paraguay, New Zealand, 
Brazil, Australia, Canada and the United States. The plan was never put 
into effect, not only because the Palestinians did not agree to 
emigrate, but also because those countries did not agree to host them.

In the same year, the Israeli army collected thousands of Palestinian 
youths and transported them in hundreds of buses to the Egyptian side of 
the Suez Canal; Israel occupied the Sinai side from 1967 to 1982. The 
Israelis then offered money to anyone who would leave Gaza. In 1970, 
Israeli General Ariel Sharon wanted to empty Gaza of its inhabitants by 
moving them to El Arish so that he could put an end to the resistance 
and solve the overpopulation problem in the coastal enclave, where 
400,000 Palestinians were then living.

As part of its efforts to encourage migration, Israel claims that 35,000 
Palestinians left Gaza last year, although this did not make a dent in 
the population. That is hardly surprising, given that there were more 
than 57,000 births in the territory in 2018.

The idea of the “transfer” of Palestinians from their homeland is 
entirely consistent with the racist Jewish Nation State Law. Gaza may be 
the focus at the moment, but Israel’s eye is also on the displacement of 
the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. Its expansion 
of illegal Jewish settlements is all part of this plan.

Removing the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip makes sense from Israel’s 
colonial-expansionist perspective, but it will require close 
coordination with major countries such as the US, Russia and the members 
of the EU, as well as places closer to home like Egypt. It is ironic 
that the proposals put forward by the likes of Rabbi Meir Kahane in the 
1970s and 1980s, for which he was banned by Israel for being too 
extreme, are now being discussed in mainstream political circles.

Israel is aware that Western countries have enough problems with 
migrants on their borders and do not want to add to these. Why do 
Israeli politicians, therefore, believe that they will now agree to host 
tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees as part of a new plan to help 
the state of Israel? Whatever the answer is, rest assured that Israel is 
still planning to displace even more Palestinians than it has already.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not 
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

-- 
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