Let’s start from the end: Trump did not invent the idea of transferring Gaza’s population elsewhere, nor did he normalize the genocide taking place in the Gaza Strip.
Avigdor Lieberman’s threats of transferring Israel’s Arab population were no innovation either. If population transfer has become an acceptable idea among the majority of Israelis, it’s not because of Trump.
It is because this has already taken place here once and is embedded in “the DNA” of this place. Yes, I’m referring to 1948, yet again, something which many Israelis prefer not to hear. But that expulsion was the event that shaped the reality in which we are living right now.
History is like a Ferris wheel. The Jews in 1948 believed that expelling Arabs from their homes would buy them quiet within the borders of their new state. Fast-forward 77 years later – it didn’t. Deportation did not bring security then, and will not bring it now, even though it may bring some real estate. I’d ask if there was anyone who wanted to live on top of a mass grave, but if this didn’t bother anyone in Tantura, it may not deter anyone in Gaza either.
It doesn’t surprise me that the right wing in Israel is ecstatic over Trump’s plan. What is revolting and sickening, however, is the similar trend in the center-left camp, which suddenly agrees, almost enthusiastically, with the transfer idea endorsed by people they apparently hate less than they hate Arabs – namely, people on the extreme right. Leftists share their fantasy, which is reminiscent of the Final Solution.
Without batting an eye, they say: “What’s the problem with relocation? Gaza is no longer habitable, maybe it’s good for Gazans who are looking for a better life.” It’s interesting to ask why Gaza is no longer fit to live in. A better life? It’s amazing that you see such relocation as if it were the same as moving to Berlin or New York, as an opportunity for a better life for Gaza’s inhabitants.
When you don’t have a foreign passport, some seed money, a job waiting for you overseas, a digital transient visa or an artist’s residence permit, and obviously a house to return to on holidays or at the end of your jaunt, there’s nothing magical about a relocation. How could anyone seriously believe that people who have lost everything – families, partners, children, property, health – many of them suffering from serious injuries, amputations or post-trauma, will find a “better life” in exile, as strangers.
The basic and long-running distortion of the debate around Gaza, and more generally around the issue of the Palestinians, is that this conversation always takes place over the heads of Gazans, be it in the British Mandate years, in Trump’s Oval Office or in the office of the purple-haired one in Israel.
Yet again, Israel, Israelis and foreign colonial elements relate to Palestinians as people with no attachment to their land. Maybe some Palestinians in Gaza would like to leave Gaza at this point, but we all know that once they leave, there is no way back.
Whether Trump’s transfer plan is realized or not – and I place my chips on it not moving forward, since Trump is a trickster full of gimmicks, and because of the multiple geopolitical complexities – the realization that I live in a country where 72 percent of the population openly supports perpetrating another crime against humanity and another people, is chilling and horrifying. I can’t stop thinking about what Jews in Germany felt during the 1930s. When can we start comparing already?
It’s Horrifying How Many Israelis Support the Expulsion of Palestinians – Opinion – Haaretz.com
