Israeli governments have discussed deportation of Gaza residents

A new study has revealed that successive Israeli governments have discussed the possibilities of deporting the residents of the Gaza Strip, Quds Press reported on Friday. According to research published on the Israeli news website Arutz Sheva, at least two Israeli governments planned to move Gaza residents to the occupied West Bank.

The study includes a number of documents, including records of internal discussions of the Israeli government following the 1967 war. A committee of four officials was tasked by the then Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to look into moving the Palestinians in Gaza to Jordan. The so-called Allon Plan was drafted by Minister Yigal Allon, and suggested conceding wide swathes of the occupied West Bank to the Hashemite Kingdom.

When Eshkol died and Allon became interim Prime Minister, he supported the idea of deporting Gaza’s residents. The then Chief of Staff, Mutta Gur, also backed this suggestion.

The documents were presented at a discussion of the mechanisms and policies adopted by Israel’s governments since 1948 to deal with the Gaza Strip. The coastal territory, which is now home to more than 2 million Palestinians, has been under an Israeli-led siege for more than a decade.