Israel\u2019s security cabinet has approved a controversial proposal to facilitate Palestinian emigration from Gaza, a move critics warn could amount to ethnic cleansing. <\/p>\n
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday said the security cabinet approved the proposal by Defense Minister Israel Katz to organize \u201ca voluntary transfer for Gaza residents who express interest in moving to third countries, in accordance with Israeli and international law, and following the vision of US President Donald Trump.\u201d <\/p>\n
The decision marks a remarkable endorsement of a plan once considered a far-right fantasy \u2013 and comes despite the prime minister\u2019s earlier pledge not to permanently displace Gaza\u2019s civilian population. <\/p>\n
Critics have said that any mass displacement of Gazans in the midst of a devastating war would amount to ethnic cleansing, an act associated with war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law. Israeli officials have countered that emigration would be voluntary and in line with international legal standards. <\/p>\n
But aid groups argue that Israel\u2019s war has made life in Gaza nearly impossible. Martin Griffiths, the United Nations\u2019 top emergency relief official, has called the enclave \u201cuninhabitable,\u201d saying its people are \u201cwitnessing daily threats to their very existence.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Israeli approval would establish an administration within the defense ministry \u201cto prepare and facilitate the safe and controlled movement of Gaza residents who wish to voluntarily move to third countries,\u201d according to a statement from the defense ministry. <\/p>\n
Its work would include \u201cestablishing movement routes, pedestrian checks at designated crossings in the Gaza Strip,\u201d and infrastructure to enable people to leave. <\/p>\n
Israeli officials have presented the plan as a fulfillment of a desire by Trump to take over Gaza, expel its Palestinian population to neighboring countries and turn it into a Middle Eastern \u201criviera.\u201d <\/p>\n
Katz said Sunday that Israel is using \u201call means to implement the vision of the US president,\u201d according to the defense ministry statement. <\/p>\n
This month, Trump appeared to backtrack on his comments about displacing Palestinians, telling reporters that \u201cnobody is expelling any Palestinians.\u201d Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, said last month that the US initiative to rebuild Gaza won\u2019t necessarily amount to an \u201ceviction plan\u201d and that it was designed to \u201cshake up everybody\u2019s thinking.\u201d <\/p>\n
Last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had no intention to displace Palestinians or occupy Gaza. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make a few points absolutely clear: Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population,\u201d Netanyahu said in a video statement in January 2024. <\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s proposal has, however, brought the idea further into the mainstream, with Israeli politicians now openly discussing mass emigration of Gazans as a solution to the war. And Katz last week said that Israel may maintain a permanent presence in the enclave. <\/p>\n
Israeli rights group Peace Now criticized the plan, saying \u201cthe establishment of the administration to expel Palestinians from Gaza is one of the stupidest moves by a government that has lost all direction and logical thinking.\u201d <\/p>\n
The prospect has also drawn sharp rebuke from Arab leaders, especially Egypt and Jordan, who would be expected to absorb the large number of expelled Palestinians. Experts have also warned that displacing Palestinians would further destabilize the region and threaten the security of neighboring states. <\/p>\n
Smotrich said Sunday that the security cabinet also approved the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, noting that 13 areas in the West Bank would be split from existing settlements and would be recognized as independent settlements. <\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of hiding and apologizing \u2013 we are raising the flag, building, and settling. This is another important step on the path to actual sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,\u201d he said, using the name by which Israelis refer to the West Bank. <\/p>\n
The Yesha Council, an umbrella body representing Jewish settlements, said that as of January 2024, there were 150 settlements in the West Bank. <\/p>\n
It said that the decision exposes a \u201clong-standing lie that (Israel) does not establish new settlements, but only \u2018neighborhoods\u2019 of existing settlements\u201d and that it is \u201canother nail in the coffin that the Government of Israel is preparing for the only chance for a future of peace and security.\u201d <\/p>\n
A statement sent by Smotrich\u2019s office said the move comes against \u201cthe backdrop of the approval of tens of thousands of housing units in Judea and Samaria and represents another significant step in the process of normalizing and regulating the settlement.\u201d <\/p>\n
Smotrich and other right-wing ministers have been pushing an aggressive expansion of settlements on the path to declaring Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, which would be in defiance of international law and UN Security Council resolutions. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s security cabinet has approved a controversial proposal to facilitate Palestinian emigration from Gaza, a move critics warn could amount to ethnic cleansing. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday said the security cabinet approved the proposal by Defense Minister Israel Katz to organize \u201ca voluntary transfer for Gaza residents who express interest in moving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}