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Palestinian Foreign Ministry: Netanyahu and his government deliberately replace forced displacement with the term "voluntary migration"

Palestinian Foreign Ministry: Netanyahu and his government deliberately replace forced displacement with the term "voluntary migration"

By Mounira Magdy

Published: January 4, 2024

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said today, Thursday, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government deliberately replace the crime of forced displacement with the concept of voluntary migration to escape accountability, according to international law.

The ministry added in a press statement that the international community and all states must observe and realize the genuine desire expressed daily by the Palestinian citizen to return to his home, despite its destruction, pointing out that Palestinian citizens defy the instructions of the occupation army and continue to infiltrate and return to their destroyed areas, despite their prior knowledge of the risks, in a Palestinian insistence to remain and reject forced displacement, which nullifies Netanyahu and the ruling right-wing’s concept of the “voluntary migration” they try to generalize, in order to hide their crimes and escape accountability and punishment, according to international law.

The ministry warned of attempts by the Israeli government and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to promote and market the concept of voluntary migration for the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, to hide the crime of forced displacement imposed by the occupation forces directly or indirectly on the Gaza Strip, through creating environments and atmospheres that drive the people of Gaza away.

It confirmed that the Palestinian people are exposed not only to genocide but also to forced displacement, and the alleged voluntary migration does not exist in their dictionary, recalling what Netanyahu said since the first day of the war, when he demanded the residents of the Gaza Strip to leave the area, revealing his intentions, plans, and goals that he has been implementing throughout 90 days of aggression and embodying them on the ground.

The ministry questioned: What does it mean to prevent citizens from returning to the northern part of the strip and killing large numbers of those who tried to return to their homes and areas? What does it mean to deprive them of all their basic humanitarian needs and aid and prevent their access to the northern Gaza Strip? And what does it also mean to destroy all shelters, hospitals, and homes that provide any level of services to citizens, destroy markets and shops, level areas to the ground, and destroy all parts of human life on it? Isn’t this a practical translation of what Netanyahu said early on regarding the displacement of Palestinians?

The ministry confirmed that what the Palestinian people are exposed to, and according to the reality imposed by the occupation war on Gaza, is forced displacement that compels the Palestinian to leave his home under threat of bombing and killing, in an attempt to protect his family if available, noting that hundreds of displaced people who moved to areas announced by the occupation army as safe were killed due to the bombing.

Meanwhile, the Arab Parliament confirmed that any proposals to displace Palestinians outside Gaza are completely rejected and condemned, and there will be no return to the scenario of the Nakba again, and that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land and part of the fully sovereign Palestinian state.

The Arab Parliament emphasized that the racist statements issued by some extremist ministers in the occupying (Israel) government's ruling power, calling for the displacement of the Palestinian people from the Gaza Strip, reoccupation of the strip, and building settlements, are barbaric statements reflecting the racist nature of the occupation, fueling tension and conflict in the region, and represent a blatant violation of international legitimacy resolutions, international law, and international humanitarian law.

The Arab Parliament called on the international community to exert genuine international pressure to confront the forced displacement plans and stop the genocide war being practiced against the Palestinian people, provide them with their basic humanitarian needs, lift the siege imposed by the occupying power, and activate international accountability mechanisms towards it and hold its extremist leaders accountable as war criminals.

The Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs also strongly condemned the recent statements issued by the Israeli ministers "Smotrich, and Ben Gvir," calling for the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and their resettlement outside it, stressing that this measure is a war crime violating the rules of international law and international humanitarian law.

In a statement today, the council held the international community fully responsible for stopping Israeli displacement plans, which have been a permanent and systematic Israeli policy before and after the establishment of the occupying state, with discussions increasing after the current extremist government took power in Israel, as well as the necessity to stop the massacres continuously committed by Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially in the Gaza Strip, since October 7th.

It added: While the council takes note of the statement issued by the US State Department spokesman’s office rejecting these disgraceful statements and describing them as "inciting and irresponsible," it renews its condemnation of the blatant involvement of the US administration in the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians, where Washington has provided all kinds of military, financial, and media support to the occupying authority, and has not hesitated to use the veto right in the UN Security Council against all draft resolutions aimed at an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, which increased the number of victims, martyrs, and injured among innocent civilians.

The council urged Washington to take courageous positions so that its words align with its actions, condemning in this context the US administration's complacency that fully committed to the status quo before the Israeli government and did not hesitate to affirm “Greater Israel” on all occupied territories, which is not only known as a Jewish state but a state where Jewish supremacy over all Palestinians is enshrined.

The council reiterated that the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation did not come out of nowhere, as confirmed by Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and that it is necessary to put an end to the aggressive Israeli crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, where the Palestinian people have been terrorized, killed, displaced, their homes demolished, and arrested for years by the Israeli occupation forces over decades, under the sight of, and with the support of, the United States, with no political horizon to guarantee their legitimate rights according to international legitimacy resolutions.

The council concluded by reaffirming that the restoration of the Palestinian people's usurped rights and finding a just, comprehensive, and permanent solution to the Palestinian issue based on the two-state solution, establishing the Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, is the only guarantee to achieve security and stability in the Middle East region and the world.

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