Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls the decision a “good humanitarian solution.” Critics speak of “ethnic cleansing”.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians to Gaza is the “right humanitarian solution” for the besieged enclave and the region, a position Palestinian officials liken to support for “ethnic cleansing”.
Smotrich made the comments after Knesset members Danny Danon, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, and Ram Ben-Barak, former deputy director of the Mossad intelligence agency, published a commentary in the Wall on Monday Street Journal suggesting moving part of Gaza’s population. to the nations that will accept them.
“I welcome the initiative of Knesset members Ram Ben-Barak and Danny Danon on the voluntary immigration of Arabs from Gaza to countries around the world. This is the right humanitarian solution for the people of Gaza and the entire region,” Smotrich wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
“A cell covering a small area like the Gaza Strip, devoid of natural resources and independent livelihoods, has no chance of existing independently, economically and politically, in such a high density, for a long period of time .
“The reception of refugees by countries around the world that truly want their best interests, with the support and generous financial assistance of the international community and the State of Israel, is the only solution that will end the suffering and to pain. Jews and Arabs.
“The State of Israel will no longer be able to support the existence of an independent entity in Gaza,” he added.
The Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry described Smotrich’s comments as “part of Israel’s colonial and racist plan” for the Palestinians. He accused Israel of engaging in a “genocide” supported by Smotrich and added that the only solution was international intervention to end the Israeli occupation.
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, said in an article on X that Smotrich “revealed the true policies and intentions of the Israeli government.”
“(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu himself declared at the start of the Israeli war on Gaza that all Gazans must evict their homes. Ethnic cleansing is a war crime and involves bombing an unprotected civilian population.
Smotrich revealed the true policies and intentions of the Israeli government. Netanyahu himself declared at the start of Israel’s war on Gaza that all Gazans must evict their homes. Ethnic cleansing is a war crime and involves the bombing of an unprotected civilian population.
– Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti (@MustafaBarghouti1) November 14, 2023
Netanyahu reportedly lobbied European leaders to help persuade the Egyptian president to welcome refugees from Gaza. The Israeli Ministry of Intelligence also presented a proposal to “evacuate” all Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt.
On Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said his country rejected any attempt to justify or encourage the movement of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and called Smotrich’s comments an “expression of the politics of Israeli government that violates international laws.
“Any attempt to justify and encourage the movement of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip is completely rejected by Egypt and internationally,” the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In March, there was a backlash against Smotrich after he declared that the Palestinian people were “an invention” of the last century. Palestinian officials called his remarks evidence of the “racist” view of Israel’s far-right government.
In their article on Monday, Danon and Ben-Barak said that Europe had a long history of providing assistance to refugees fleeing conflict and that, based on this example, “countries around the world should offer refuge to Gaza residents seeking resettlement.”
“Countries can achieve this by creating well-structured and internationally coordinated resettlement programs,” they write.
A majority of Palestinians were expelled from their homeland in 1948 during the creation of the state of Israel – an event they call the Nakba, or “catastrophe.”
Most people in Gaza today are the children or grandchildren of those displaced during the Nakba. They now risk being permanently uprooted again, which constitutes a war crime under international law.
