Israeli occupation soldiers walk behind a tank in the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees, in the occupied West Bank during a military operation on February 24, 2025 [JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images]
Israeli occupation soldiers walk behind a tank in the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees, in the occupied West Bank during a military operation on February 24, 2025 [JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images]
Palestinians in Gaza are caught between two externally-imposed plans, neither of which prioritises the decolonisation of their land. The US plan to take over Gaza and develop it as a “Rivera of the Middle East” for Israel’s benefit, which the latter has of course endorsed, is countered by the internationally-preferred Egyptian-Arab plan for Gaza which would combine rebuilding the enclave and the Palestinian Authority’s return.
Palestinians thus have two options: a US-Israeli collaboration to forcibly expel them from Gaza, or the return of illegitimate PA rule which even Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been rebelling against.
It is safe to say that quashing legitimate Palestinian resistance is what both plans ultimately seek to do.
Israeli media reported Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as saying that the defence ministry is working towards a “migration administration” to oversee the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. There are no budget obstacles, Smotrich pointed out. “If we take out 5,000 a day it will take a year. The logistics are complicated because we need to know who is going to which country,” he added.
According to Israeli Minister for Settlements and National Projects Orit Strock, “As long as we don’t allow most of the population to emigrate, we will not remove the threat.” Allowing emigration is one thing – it implies making an international move voluntarily, for better prospects or a new job elsewhere — whereas forcibly displacing Palestinians is a war crime.
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Yuli Edelstein, Likud MK and Chair of the Land of Israel Caucus which is the largest lobby group in parliament, said that, “Things that for decades looked impossible now seem a super-legitimate subject for discussion.”
Such a statement is not surprising. Israel was allowed to carry out a genocide ostensibly to defend itself and its “security” narrative. If the international community stayed silent about genocide, why would it suddenly and effectively oppose forced displacement?
While Egypt’s plan maintains the rebuilding of Gaza without displacing Palestinians, it is important to remember that the plan is endorsed by those who equate forced displacement with the humanitarian paradigm, rather than oppose the war crime. Gaza has been home to a forcibly displaced population since the 1948 Nakba; today the entire population has now been forcibly internally displaced since the start of Israel’s genocide.
The PA, which is being touted for a leadership role in Gaza, aided Israel in expelling Palestinians from Jenin refugee camp just recently in the name of its “sacred” (as per Mahmoud Abbas) security collaboration with the occupation state, while it continues targeting the Palestinian resistance. PA leader Abbas mentioned the possibility of holding elections, but his declarations so far amount to nothing but empty rhetoric.
If Trump’s plan is imposed, will the international community that endorsed the Egyptian-Arab plan stand up against the Palestinian people’s forced expulsion from Gaza?
If the Arab League-backed plan is implemented, how will the issue of Palestinian refugees be addressed? How can the PA be entrusted to protect Palestinian refugees in Gaza when it made refugees in Jenin vulnerable to Israel’s attacks on their homes in the refugee camp?
Will the international community decide for Palestinians that they should accept one form of refugee status over another?
If the international community really wants to oppose the US-Israeli scheme, rebuilding Gaza is not enough, though. Acknowledging and then addressing what has forced Palestinians into perpetual refugee status for decades — Israel’s settler colonial occupation — and dismantling it, must take precedence. If not, then external impositions will only ever create more oppression for the Palestinians.
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