A classified document referring to Israeli ethnic cleansing practices at the expense of Palestinians was leaked by the Wikileaks website…
As noted, the plan describes how the population of Gaza will be expelled from their ancestral lands and includes specific steps:
- Order Palestinian civilians to leave northern Gaza ahead of ground operations.
- Successive ground operations from the North to the South of Gaza.
- The escape routes in Rafa should remain clear.
- Establishing tent camps in northern Sinai and establishing cities to resettle Palestinians in Egypt
However, apart from the above, there is also a special reference to Greece as a country of displacement, a particularly worrying fact, due to the recent events and developments in Migration in the study countries of the Mediterranean EU.
The document has been verified by an official from the Ministry of Intelligence, according to the Hebrew website Mekomit which originally published the document. Mekomit noted that documents from the Ministry of Intelligence are advisory and not binding on the executive. Link to full document [in Hebrew]: https://rb.gy/g1k0d
The plan highlights issues of international legitimacy, but justifies the move as a solution for the refugee population seeking refuge from the war. At the same time, the document rejects the two other options: restoring the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority as sovereign in Gaza or supporting a local regime.
Among other reasons, he rejects them as incapable of preventing attacks against Israel. Egypt has refused to consider taking in Palestinians fleeing Israel’s assault on Gaza.
These recommendations are made by ministry officials
According to a source in Israel’s Intelligence Ministry, ministry officials are behind these recommendations.
However, the source stressed that the ministry’s investigation “is not based on military intelligence” and serves only as a basis for discussions with the government.
The classified document suggests launching a communications campaign for civilians in Gaza that would “motivate them to agree to the plan” and force them to leave their land. “The messages should revolve around the loss of the land, that is, make it clear that there is no hope of returning to the lands that Israel will occupy in the near future, whether this is true or not.
The image that will be presented will read: “Allah has made sure that you lose this land because of the leadership of Hamas – you can only move elsewhere with the help of your Muslim brothers,” the document reads. In addition, he said the Israeli government should lead a communications campaign to promote the transfer plan to the Western world “in a way that does not incite and tarnish Israel.”
In other words, they will try to present the expulsion of the Palestinian population from Gaza as a humanitarian necessity and gain international support because it will result in “less civilian casualties than would be expected if the population remained.”
The document also states that the United States should be involved in the process to pressure Egypt to absorb the Gazans, but also to “recruit” other European countries, particularly Greece, Spain and Canada, to help absorb and settle the refugees from Gaza.
The Intelligence Ministry said the document was not distributed through the ministry to US officials, but only to the Israeli government and security services.
It is noted that last week, the Misgav Institute, a right-wing think tank led by Meir Ben-Shabbat, a close associate of Netanyahu and former head of the National Security Council, published a document that also called for the forced transfer of the population of Gaza to Sinai . Institute officials recently deleted the post from Twitter after it sparked strong international backlash. Interestingly, the deleted study was written by Amir Whiteman, a Likud activist and, according to testimony, also a close associate of Minister Gila Gamliel in the Ministry of Intelligence.
Possibilities
The chances of implementing such a plan, which amounts to ethnic cleansing, are negligible in many respects.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi recently stated that he strongly opposes the opening of the Rafah crossing to absorb the civilian population of Gaza. He also said that the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai would threaten the peace between Egypt and Israel and warned that it would lead to Israeli attacks on Egyptian soil.
A few years ago, however, el Sisi himself called for the extension of the Gaza Strip to Sinai and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, a proposal that was flatly rejected by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. A similar plan has been presented in the past by other Israeli officials, but has not matured into a real discussion.
The document states that Egypt will have an “obligation under international law to allow the population to pass” and that the United States can contribute to the process by putting “pressure on Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to contribute to the initiative or with resources or absorption of displaced persons’.
The document suggests conducting a special public campaign targeting the Arab world, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, “focusing on the message of aid to the Palestinian Brotherhood and their rehabilitation, even at the cost of a tone that scolds or harms Israel’. Finally, he said that the “mass migration” of the population from the war zones is a “natural and obvious consequence”, which has also happened in Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine, and that only the expulsion of the population will be an “appropriate response that will enable significant deterrence to be created across the region.”
“The most dangerous alternative”: a Palestinian state
The paper presents two alternatives regarding Gaza’s civilians in the aftermath of the war.
- The first is the establishment of a new regime led by the Palestinian Authority and
- the second is the creation of another local Arab government as an alternative to Hamas.
Both alternatives, it is argued, are strategically and security undesirable for the State of Israel, and will not provide a sufficient deterrent message, especially to Hezbollah in Lebanon, in response to Hamas carnage near the Gaza Strip.
The study’s authors claimed that the Palestinian Authority’s entry into Gaza was the “most dangerous alternative” of the three because it could “lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
The paper argues that a model of Israeli military rule and Palestinian Authority political rule, as it exists in the West Bank, is likely to fail in Gaza.
“There is no way to maintain an effective military occupation of Gaza solely on the basis of a military presence and without settlement.
Within a short period of time, there will be an internal Israeli and international demand for withdrawal.”
The document’s authors added that, in such a case, the state of Israel “would be seen as a colonial power with an occupying army … Similar to the situation in Judea and Samaria today, only worse.” They noted that the Palestinian Authority enjoys “low legitimacy” among Palestinians and has been unable to maintain power in Gaza in the past, so there is no reason to believe it will be able to rule there today.
The last alternative, the formation of a local Arab government to replace Hamas, is undesirable, according to the document, because there are no local opposition movements to Hamas and the new leadership is likely to be more radical.
“The likely scenario is not a change in ideological perception, but the creation of new Islamic movements, possibly even more extreme,” he said.
Finally, it was argued that if the Palestinians remained in Gaza, there would be “many Arab deaths” during the expected occupation, which would damage Israel’s international image even more than the expulsion of the population.
For all these reasons, the recommendation of the Ministry of Intelligence is to promote the permanent transfer of all civilians from Gaza to Sinai.
