“The 'voluntary' resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza is slowly becoming an official policy of the Israeli government.” The Times of Israel claims this, according to which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition is carrying it forward secret negotiations with Congo and other countries to welcome thousands of immigrants from Gaza. “Congo will be willing to accept migrants and we are in talks with others,” a source from the security cabinet suggested to the newspaper.
Last Monday, Netanyahu had announced at a Likud meeting that he was working to facilitate the voluntary migration of Gazans to other countries. “Our problem is finding countries willing to absorb the inhabitants of Gaza, and we are working on it”, he declared. The prime minister thus reinforced the position of Likud MP Danny Danon, for whom “the world was already discussing the possibilities of voluntary immigration”, although the idea is, at least in words, categorically rejected by the international community. The far-right parties, the Religious Zionist Party and Otzma Yehudit, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir respectively, are the biggest supporters of the migration plans.
On Tuesday, the US State Department rebuked Smotrich and Ben Gvir for supporting the resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza, calling their rhetoric “inflammatory and irresponsible.” Smotrich rejected the comments on Wednesday, arguing that more than 70% of Israelis support the idea of ”encouraging voluntary immigration” because “two million people in Gaza wake up every morning wanting to destroy the State of Israel.” Netanyahu's office has previously issued statements publicly insisting that Smotrich and Ben Gvir do not represent government policy on the issue, despite his own comments last week in support of a population transfer. Several Likud ministers and legislators also spoke out in favor.
On Tuesday, Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel told the Times of Israel that “voluntary migration is the best and most realistic plan for the day after the fighting ends”. Furthermore, during a conference held in the Knesset to examine the possibilities for post-war Gaza, Gamliel declared: “At the end of the war, the Hamas government will collapse. There are no municipal authorities; the civilian population will depend entirely on humanitarian aid. There will be no jobs and 60% of Gaza's agricultural land will become security buffer zones”.
In November, he published an editorial in the Wall Street Journal in which he outlined the Palestinian immigration plan for the first time, calling for “countries around the world accept a limited number of migrants”.
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