As the war between Israel and Palestine grows, a senior far-right member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government made a statement claiming that Gaza could no longer survive as an independent entity. He suggests that it would be better for the Palestinians there to leave their country, and has reached out to countries in Africa and the Western hemisphere to see if they would be willing to take migrants.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads one of the religious nationalist parties in Netanyahu’s coalition, said that he supports this call.
“I welcome the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world,” Smotrich said in a statement. “This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region after 75 years of refugees, poverty, and danger.”
He also says that a small area, such as the Gaza Strip, could not survive alone. These comments and claims have struck fear among the Palestinians, wondering whether or not Israel is attempting to repeat history by pushing Palestinians out of their home country, which happened in the wake of the 1948 war that fueled the founding of the state of Israel.
Likud’s Danon and Yesh Atid MK Ram Ben Barak, supporters of the plan to encourage Gazans to leave the Strip, published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. The article goes into detail about the plan for the Palestinian migration, calling for “countries around the world to accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate.” This idea was also raised to Saudi Arabia to take in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians for work, which will subsequently lead the Gulf Kingdom to a massive construction boom.
During this newly imposed resettlement, most Palestinians have, or will, end up in neighboring Arab states. There remains uncertainty regarding Israel’s plans. However, various nations, including the United States, have expressed the opinion that Gaza should be governed by Palestinians.
