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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190910-israel-is-still-planning-to-displace-even-more-palestinians/">https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190910-israel-is-still-planning-to-displace-even-more-palestinians/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Israel is still planning to displace
even more Palestinians</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Dr Adnan Abu Amer -
September 10, 2019</div>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The views expressed in this article belong to the
author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial
policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
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