Report: Israel in Talks With Third Country to Expel Palestinians Entirely
It seems that Israel is finally opening up to the idea of a two-state solution to its conflict with Palestine—so long as the second state is on a completely different continent.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition has been secretly speaking with the Democratic Republic of Congo about resettling thousands of Palestinians in the African nation, the Israeli outlet Zman Israel reported Wednesday.
“Congo will be willing to take in migrants, and we’re in talks with others,” a senior source in the security Cabinet, speaking anonymously, said.
Netanyahu and his allies floated the idea of sending Palestinians elsewhere last week, but the idea has been vehemently rejected by the international community. Moreover, Congo is unlikely to have the resources necessary to take care of such a massive influx of displaced people. More than half of the country’s population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Food Programme.
Israeli officials have made it increasingly clear in recent days that their plan is to completely eliminate Palestine. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that a way to solve the war was to “encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents to countries that will agree to take in the refugees.”
Separately, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir told reporters Monday that the war was an “opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza.”
The U.S. State Department slammed the officials’ comments as “inflammatory” and “irresponsible.”
“We have been told repeatedly and consistently by the Government of Israel, including by the Prime Minister, that such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government. They should stop immediately,” department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
But it seems that Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s statements do reflect the policy of the Israeli government. Nearly all of the 2.3 million people living in the Gaza Strip have been displaced due to Israel’s unrelenting bombardment of the region. Palestinians were forced to flee to designated “safe zones,” only for Israel to bomb those areas, as well.
South Africa asked the International Court of Justice on December 29 for an urgent order declaring that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in its nearly three-month assault on the Gaza Strip. More than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority women and children. Some organizations, such as the nonprofit Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, put the death toll at nearly 30,000.