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The displacement plan is still present, but …

February 19, 2024 at 4:42 pm

Palestinians, trying to live in makeshift tents they set up, are viewed in Rafah, Gaza on February 14, 2024 [Abed Zagout – Anadolu Agency ]

Reuters news agency and the American channel, CNN, published a report, supported by satellite images, about what is happening on the Egyptian Rafah border, in what was said to be a buffer zone with an area of 20 square kilometres near the border. Equipped tents are being built in this area for 100,000 Palestinians from Gaza to escape the bombing in the Palestinian city of Rafah, where 1.3 million residents of Gaza were displaced, following the brutal Israeli bombing in the north, south and centre of the Strip. Rafah has become a city crowded with Palestinians, amid threats from the occupying government of invading Rafah, indicating a serious humanitarian catastrophe, as stated by the UN Secretary-General.

It is worth noting that Egypt has already built a high fence, a cement wall and barbed wire to separate the Egyptian and Palestinian cities of Rafah which means that, if this invasion occurs, the displaced people will live in a large prison.

Egypt announced its decisive position since the start of the brutal aggression against Gaza, stating its complete rejection of any forced or voluntary displacement of its Palestinian brothers from the Gaza Strip to outside of Gaza, especially to Egyptian territories, because it liquidates the Palestinian cause and is a direct threat to Egyptian sovereignty and national security.

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However, the statements made by Zionist leaders and officials say the opposite, as they indicate an upcoming or possible understanding regarding the invasion of Rafah!

In this war, we have seen the policy of forced displacement in Gaza being adopted after years of siege and several previous military operations, where the people of northern Gaza are gradually being displaced to its south, then to the city of Rafah, perhaps in preparation for their displacement from Rafah to Sinai.

The displacement project is old, dating back to the 1950s, and was originally part of the plan to liquidate the cause through what was known as “economic peace”. These projects have completely failed because the Palestinians clung to their land, and because they learned the lesson well from the 1948 Nakba, after their fathers and grandfathers were forced to leave their land. They left their homes, taking their keys with them, hoping to return, but the doors were locked with other keys that prevented them from entering again.

These projects returned after the cursed Oslo Accords in the 1990s, but they also failed, despite bets on their success, this time, through a so-called peace agreement, but the Palestinians’ awareness and resistance were stronger than their losing bets. The Zionists do not learn from the lessons of history, nor do they understand or comprehend the meaning of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, their commitment to their land and their legitimate rights to resist, liberating their land from the Zionist Occupier and establishing their State on the entire territory of Palestine.

The policy of expansion and occupation of new lands to be added to the Zionist entity as part of what is known as the “Promised Land” is the doctrine adopted by the Zionists and is a declared policy that many Zionist leaders spoke about. Among them, this is what the former Israeli National Security Advisor, Giora Eiland, wrote in 2010, proposing a solution to the Palestinian issue: either a Jordanian/Palestinian federation, by re-establishing the State of Jordan in the form of three states (East Bank, West Bank and Gaza Strip), or exchanging territories, meaning Egypt gives up 720 kilometres of Sinai to establish a Palestinian State in the form of a rectangle extending from Rafah to Al-Arish, measuring 24 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide. This is equivalent to 12 per cent of the area of the West Bank that the Occupying state wants to annex, in exchange for Egypt obtaining international economic support and lands of equal area in Wadi Firan in the Negev.

The Zionist state has not given up on the resettlement issue nor has it closed the issue; instead, it is opening it again, forcefully, after its invasion of Gaza after 7 October, making it one of the goals of its war. In fact, it has considered it a condition to guarantee its existence and continuation as a Jewish state. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, recently announced that discussions are taking place with many parties seeking a “voluntary” evacuation of Gaza’s Arabs to countries around the world, while the Canadian Minister of Immigration stated that his country will launch an immigration program early next year that will allow Gazans to obtain a residence visa without preconditions.

The dream of displacement still exists in the imagination of the Zionist enemy, and the war on Gaza revived this dream and gave it the opportunity to get rid of its main problem, i.e., the number of Palestinian residents. It believes that success in the displacement file will be a sign of victory in the war, given the circumstances and transformations that the Zionist aggression produced on the Arab, regional and international levels. This file, the “New Nakba”, can remain open and ready for implementation, but the biggest and most important dependence remains on the steadfastness of the Palestinians, the valour of the Resistance and their confrontation of the aggression. Therefore, the displacement file will not pass, and they will not succeed in implementing it. In the past, Ariel Sharon had said that he hoped he would wake up one day to find Gaza swallowed by the sea, but Sharon died, and Gaza remained steadfast and unwavering. Now, Netanyahu will also go to the dustbin of history, and Gaza will remain free and proud, resistant to its invaders.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.