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Why is Netanyahu reviving Palestinians' ‘willing relocation’?

Past attempts to encourage Palestinians to voluntarily emigrate have always failed, so time and effort would be better invested in reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement than pursuing a new push by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Gaza residents to voluntarily move elsewhere.
Palestinians take part in an-anti Israel protest at the Israel-Gaza border fence in the southern Gaza Strip August 23, 2019. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa - RC172DEA5FA0
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The news emerging from a briefing by an unnamed Israeli official during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s urgent Aug. 18 Ukraine visit had nothing to do with the trip and probably everything to do with the upcoming elections. The official in Netanyahu’s entourage told reporters covering the visit that the National Security Council had been asked to draw up a plan for encouraging residents of the Gaza Strip to leave their homes and move to Arab and other countries. Israel’s security Cabinet has seriously debated the idea, but so far, the authors of the plan have not found a country willing to take in the would-be emigres.

The idea reminded me of “Through Secret Channels” (1995), written by Mahmoud Abbas, the current Palestinian president. Parts of the book focus in great detail on the Oslo peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, and others describe the far more fascinating process the writer underwent leading to his deep engagement in efforts to reach peace with Israel. Abbas writes that at the beginning of the 1970s, he came across an article noting that Jewish migrants from Arab states constituted the majority of Israel’s Jewish population. He was astounded and then felt that he had hit upon a brilliant idea for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The PLO would call on all the Arab states to take back the Jews who had abandoned their homes there!

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