Indians arrive at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam after being expelled from Uganda, Nov. 24, 1972. Photo courtesy of Bert Verhoeff for Anefo/Netherlands National Archive via Wikimedia Commons.

By MITCHELL BARD

JNS

It was interesting to watch the bemused look on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s face during a Washington press conference as President Donald Trump floated his harebrained idea of deporting all Gazans. Yet the man who insists he is “not a vassal” quickly pivoted to praise Trump for an idea “that could change history.”

Thinking Outside The Box

Trump deserves credit for apparently abandoning the two-state solution embedded in his first-term Mideast peace plan. Some praised him for thinking outside the box, but creativity alone doesn’t make an idea good. In this case, his proposal to send the Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt is not only unrealistic but also dangerous for Israel.

According to former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, “It is noteworthy there is no Palestinian population in Egypt. Going back to the days of [former Egyptian leader] Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptians saw the threat.” He added, “As you go around the region, almost all [the Arab governments] were united on one point, which was that the Palestinians were a threat, a foreign population that should be weakened if not exterminated.”

So much for the incessant rhetoric about Arab solidarity with the Palestinians …

Given that reality, it was unsurprising that Jordan and Egypt—the two countries Trump said should take them—rejected the idea. The president huffed and puffed that he would blow their houses down by withholding aid, but they stood firm, and Trump ultimately backed down.

Palestinians Choice

The problem could be solved by giving Palestinians a choice of where to go. A poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 31% of Gazans considered emigrating. The most preferred destination was Turkey, followed by Germany, Canada, the United States and Qatar. Notice that neither Jordan nor Egypt is on the list, and none of the above is volunteering to accept hundreds of thousands of refugees. It’s also worth noting that Trump did not offer the United States as a haven.

Even if all those Gazans voluntarily left, about 1.5 million would remain.

Advocates of the Trump plan want to force the Palestinians to leave. Israelis certainly won’t shed any tears, and some will undoubtedly hope that the same idea can be applied to Judea and Samaria.

Immediate Criticism

Critics immediately shouted “ethnic cleansing” and “war crime.” In response, proponents cite historical precedents of mass expulsions and population transfers that occurred with little international backlash:

  • After World War II, 12.5 million Germans in Poland and Czechoslovakia were expelled.
  • Between 10 and 20 million people were displaced during the 1947 partition of India.
  • In 1972, Uganda expelled 80,000 Asians.
  • More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh in 2017.
  • Just two years ago, Pakistan expelled 1.7 million Afghans.

The most relevant example is Kuwait’s 1991 expulsion of 300,000 Palestinians after the PLO declared its support for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s invasion of the country. Does anyone remember that? Did the United Nations condemn Kuwait? Were student encampments built on college campuses to protest the forcible expulsion of Palestinians? Did anyone call for a boycott of Kuwait?

Who Would Do The Expelling?

Using these analogies to justify the expulsion of the Gazans is problematic. Unlike these other groups, the Palestinians have an active global constituency advocating on their behalf. The Kuwaiti case was largely ignored because Arabs mistreating Palestinians has never sparked international outrage. When Israel is involved, however, the reaction is very different.

Today, the Palestinians are the world’s favorite cause—at least rhetorically. Israelis, who are already pariahs in much of the world, may not care about additional criticism, but a mass expulsion would only deepen their isolation.

Since Trump has not outlined how the 2.2 million Palestinians would be deported, it is assumed that Israel would be responsible for executing the plan.

Picture Israeli soldiers rounding up Palestinian families with their meager belongings and loading them onto buses and trucks for deportation. What analogy would that evoke?

If Trump believes this is a viable solution, kol hakavod. Let him send U.S. troops to carry it out. But don’t expect Israelis to do his dirty work.