Why Palestinians Fear Permanent Displacement From Gaza

[Uncle Joe]

For Palestinians, permanent displacement from their homeland is a perennial fear. It is one that has followed them from the war that led to Israel’s creation to 1948, in which some 700,000 Palestinians were violently expelled or forced to flee their homes and native villages in what they dub as the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” to the systemic evictions and home demolitions of the present. Now, the specter of forced mass expulsion looms over the enclave’s more than 2 million inhabitants, as Israel’s bombardment of the Strip, which has killed at least 9,000 Palestinians, forces them to flee south. The scale of the death and destruction, coupled with the dire humanitarian crisis, has increased international pressure on Arab countries—in particular Egypt—to open its border with Gaza to Palestinian refugees.

(snip)

Egypt has every reason to be skeptical. It only needs to look at the experience of nearby Jordan and Lebanon, both of which were forced to absorb hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees amid past wars (none of whom have been permitted to return), to know that any solutions billed as a temporary humanitarian measure may turn out otherwise. The expulsionary rhetoric of the Israeli government, both before and since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, hasn’t placated those concerns. Indeed, a recently leaked document from Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence, dated Oct. 13, outlines a proposal to forcibly and permanently transfer Gaza’s Palestinians to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. “The messages should revolve around the loss of land, making it clear that there is no hope of returning to the territories Israel will soon occupy, whether or not that is true,” reads the document, which was first reported on by +972 Magazine and its sister Hebrew-language site Local Call. “The image needs to be, ‘Allah made sure you lose this land because of Hamas’ leadership — there is no choice but to move to another place with the assistance of your Muslim brothers.’”

While there is no evidence that this plan has been taken up as policy, its very existence indicates that “at the highest levels of the Israeli government, this has been discussed as an option,” says H.A. Hellyer, a London-based Middle East scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “So [Egypt] is not unreasonable in thinking that this might be the case.”

(snip)

The recent spate of normalization deals between Israel and largely Gulf Arab countries notwithstanding, the Palestinian issue remains a potent one on the Arab street, as recently evidenced by demonstrations in Amman, Beirut, and Cairo. “One of the longest open wounds in the Arab world is the issue of Palestine and the failure to resolve it,” Munayyer says. “For Arab governments to be seen again as complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is touching on the rawest nerve across the entire Arab world.”

(snip)

https://time.com/6330904/palestinians-gaza-fear-permanent-expulsion/

[T_A]

1. "Why Palestinians Fear Permanent Displacement From Gaza"

HISTORY?

[CincyDem]

2. Here...let me fix that faulty premise for ya.

It is one that has followed them from the war that led to Israel’s creation to 1948, in which some 700,000 Palestinians CHOSE to LEAVE their homes and native villages, AT THE URGING OF ARAB NEIGHBORS, RATHER THAN ABANDON THEIR HOPE OF KILLING ALL JEWS IN ISRAEL.

It was a catastrophe, unfortunately of their own making. Those 700k thought they could rely on support from their Arab neighbors. Unfortunately that didn’t work out for them too well in ‘68 and ‘73 or since.

In contrast, many Palestinians took Israel up on their offer to stay, abandon their commitment to kill Jews, and become part of a potentially thriving multicultural society. Their 1.6 million descendants, now citizens of Israel, are political, judicial, medical and professional leaders through Israel.

So one group stayed…did well. One group said “we see our future in killing Jews”…didn’t work out so well.

Actions have consequences. They fear getting pushed out of Gaza because it’s harder to kill Jews from Egypt or wherever.

[revmclaren]

3. History...what a concept.

[Uncle Joe]

4. "Chose to leave their homes?"

You're speaking about a land grab.

I wonder how many Americans would "choose to leave their homes" should another ethnicity demand they do so?

The ONLY moral and most pragmatic answer to this is a formal Peace Treaty that recognizes Palestine's independence and Israel's security.

[CincyDem]

5. Some meaningful percent Palestinians made that decision in 1948.

And the descendants of that group are doing pretty well in Israel today. In fact, as a percent of total population, Israel has the highest percent Palestinian population excluding numbers in the West Bank and Gaza. In absolute numbers, it’s got the second largest population behind Jordan.

The time article says Palestinians were forced out and that’s simply not true.

But since you’ve got a clear path to the ONLY moral answer…no need for us to wallow around in the demonstrable historical facts.

[Uncle Joe]

6. I guess expulsion doesn't mean what it used to mean?

In 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of prewar Mandatory Palestine's Arab population – fled from their homes or were expelled by Zionist militias[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] during the 1948 Palestine war,[9] following the Partition Plan for Palestine. The expulsion and flight was a central component of the fracturing, dispossession, and displacement of Palestinian society, known as the Nakba.[10][11] Between 400 and 600 Palestinian villages were destroyed. Village wells were poisoned in a biological warfare programme and properties were looted to prevent Palestinian refugees from returning.[12][13] Other sites were subject to Hebraization of Palestinian place names.[14] These activities were not necessarily limited to the year 1948.[15]

The precise number of Palestinian refugees, many of whom settled in Palestinian refugee camps in neighboring states, is a matter of dispute.[16] Around 80 percent of the Arab inhabitants of what became Israel (half of the Arab total population of Mandatory Palestine) left or were expelled from their homes.[17][18] About 250,000–300,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled during the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, before the Israeli Declaration of Independence in May 1948, a fact which was named as a casus belli for the entry of the Arab League into the country, sparking the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

The causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus are also a subject of fundamental disagreement among historians. Factors involved in the exodus include Jewish military advances, destruction of Arab villages, psychological warfare, fears of another massacre by Zionist militias after the Deir Yassin massacre,[19]: 239–240  which caused many to leave out of panic, direct expulsion orders by Israeli authorities, the demoralizing impact of wealthier classes fleeing,[20] the typhoid epidemic in some areas caused by Israeli well-poisoning,[21] collapse in Palestinian leadership and Arab evacuation orders,[22][23] and a disinclination to live under Jewish control.[24][25]

Later, a series of land and property laws passed by the first Israeli government prevented Arabs who had left from returning to their homes or claiming their property. They and many of their descendants remain refugees.[26][27] The expulsion of the Palestinians has since been described by some historians as ethnic cleansing,[28][13][29] while others dispute this charge.[30][31][32] Nevertheless, the existence of the so-called Law of Return allowing for immigration and naturalization of any Jewish person and their family to Israel, while a Palestinian right of return has been denied, has been cited as an evidence for the charges of apartheid against the State of Israel.[33][34]

The status of the refugees, and in particular whether Israel will allow them the right to return to their homes, or compensate them, are key issues in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[citation needed] The events of 1948 are commemorated by Palestinians both in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere on 15 May, a date known as Nakba Day.

(snip)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_expulsion_and_flight

[CincyDem]

7. I don't know...

The official policy in ‘48 was they could stay. No idea what the real effect was.

That said, the 1.6 million Palestinians living as Israeli citizens came from somewhere.

[ancianita]

9. It was not in any way a "land grab." Israel was established post WWII by parties to the Balfour declaration.

The idea of a Jewish “homeland” was proposed in three declarations by Britain (signed by Balfour), France, and the United States, then promulgated in a July 1922 resolution by the League of Nations that created the British “mandates” over Palestine and Iraq that matched French “mandates” over Syria and Lebanon. In 1947, the United Nations devised the partition of the British mandate of Palestine into two states, Arab and Jewish.

The carving of such states out of these mandates was not exceptional, either. At the end of World War II, France granted independence to Syria and Lebanon, newly conceived nation-states. Britain created Iraq and Jordan in a similar way. Imperial powers designed most of the countries in the region, except Egypt.

Most Israelis are descended from people who migrated to the Holy Land from 1881 to 1949. They were not completely new to the region. The Jewish people ruled Judean kingdoms and prayed in the Jerusalem Temple for a thousand years, then were ever present there in smaller numbers for the next 2,000 years. In other words, Jews are indigenous in the Holy Land, and if one believes in the return of exiled people to their homeland, then the return of the Jews is exactly that. Even those who deny this history or regard it as irrelevant to modern times must acknowledge that Israel is now the home and only home of 9 million Israelis who have lived there for four, five, six generations....

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016367808

While it's nice to speak of Israel security, the only way that will happen is when neighboring elite Muslim nations literally step up for Palestinians and donate land that, along with the lower half of Gaza, they literally draw up on a map that will become a new 21st Century Palestine. THEN there will be more Israel security, fewer rocket attacks, but never complete Israel security as long as Muslims refuse to coexist peacefully with Israel. Until then Israel has its Iron Dome and the U.S. as its most powerful ally.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Did any representatives of the Palestinian People

participate in those negotiations?

[ancianita]

11. They've never been part of ANY treaty or accord between western and ME powers; for that, Israel is not to blame.

Palestine has been treated like the stepchild of Muslim countries since before 1948. And everyone who's read up on Palestinian history knows it. From the commons of the Internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Palestinians

[Uncle Joe]

12. This isn't about "blame" we're long past that point.

This is about justice, so the Palestinians were treated like a "stepchild" by the Muslim countries for years so what did Balfour do to improve their lot?

[ancianita]

13. I hear you, but you had to ask, & now you change terms. Front & center, this is about the justice of nation survival.

SURVIVAL. It is not Israel's job to be both DEFENDING AND HUMANITARIAN on behalf of Palestinians. Those are not the rules of war. Look up all legal wars before all war was literally, internationally, outlawed in 1928, and you'll find that the countries that lost, lost the most civilians -- not military -- and surrendered because their societies were weakened to the point of surrender.

I put myself in Israelis' place and fully support whatever it takes for Israel to force Hamas out, and all Hamas allies to the treaty table. Hamas is now calling for "terms." Have you noticed? And why? Because they're fighting for their own survival.

You absolutely cannot rewrite the facts of the past. Palestine got screwed by both sides in all treaties and accords. The Atlantic article I posted today acknowledged that. Every honest accounting of Palestinian history acknowledges that.

So I'll put it to you this way: if you were here in the U.S., and the same percentage of Americans had just been raped and murdered -- that would be in the millions -- such that all of us rushed to defend this country from further bloody strikes by our the enemy(ies), would seriously be demanding that "this is about justice"? that our government to do "justice" even at the same time it defends your life and mine?
Would you be out protesting on behalf of our attackers' civilian populations that use them as human shields while we defend our nation's own people?

This whole idea of "doing justice" in the middle of a bloody war by an enemy that has WRITTEN for the genocide of Israel, is cynical armchair keyboard generallisimo ignorance -- for none of us know whereof we speak when we know we are not suffering a bloody existential trauma as Israel is.

Anyone who wants justice for Palestinians, I'm all for. But not until Hamas is literally gone from the table -- and by any means necessary.

[Uncle Joe]

14. That takes us back to my post #4

"Chose to leave their homes?"

You're speaking about a land grab.

I wonder how many Americans would "choose to leave their homes" should another ethnicity demand they do so?

The ONLY moral and most pragmatic answer to this is a formal Peace Treaty that recognizes Palestine's independence and Israel's security.



My use of the term "justice" is universal and criticism of Israel's collective punishment war policy isn't just for the sake of the Palestinians so much as they deserve it but for the long term chances of Israel's security as well as the World's.

The OP is about Palestinian perceptions and if we don't take those into consideration in our deliberations, no peace treaty will ever be negotiated with the Palestinians.

No one or two state solution will stand a chance with potentially everyone ultimately paying the price for our loss of humanity.

[Brenda]

8. Because that is EXACTLY what Israeli MP and others SAY.

An Israeli lawmaker from the ruling right-wing Likud Party on Wednesday offered fresh evidence that the Israeli government's aim in its bombardment of Gaza is a genocidal effort to kill or forcibly remove the more than 2 million Palestinians living there, declaring, "Gaza should be erased."

After screening a 45-minute montage of footage taken by Hamas fighters' body cameras during the October 7 attack, Knesset member and former Public Diplomacy Minister Galit Distal Atbaryan posted on Facebook that Israeli officials must invest all their energy "in one thing: erasing all of Gaza from the face of the Earth."

"That the brave monsters will fly to the southern fence and enter Egyptian territory," Atbaryan continued, an apparent reference to Israel's reported plan to permanently expel Palestinians who survive the assault to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, imposing a "second Nakba" on the population. "Or let them die... Gaza needs to be wiped out."

"Revengeful and vicious IDF is required here," she continued. "Anything less than that is immoral."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-gaza-genocide