As desperate Palestinians in sealed-off Gaza try to find refuge under Israel’s relentless bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack, many ask why neighboring Egypt or other Arab countries don’t take them in.

The two countries, which flank Israel on opposite sides and share borders with Gaza and the occupied West Bank, respectively, have replied with a staunch refusal. Jordan already has a large Palestinian population.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi made his toughest remarks yet on Wednesday, saying the current war was not just aimed at fighting Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, “but also an attempt to push the civilian inhabitants to … migrate to Egypt.” He warned this could wreck peace in the region.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II gave a similar message a day earlier, saying, “No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt.”

Their refusal is rooted in fear that Israel wants to force a permanent expulsion of Palestinians into their countries and nullify Palestinian demands for statehood. El-Sissi also said a mass exodus would risk bringing militants into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, from where they might launch attacks on Israel, endangering the two countries’ 40-year-old peace treaty.

  • NoiseColor@startrek.website
    548·
    1 year ago

    Tldr: Nobody wants them, because they fear they will bring hamas with them and because they are a political tool against Israel.

    Its seriously f*d up.

    • Wahots@pawb.social
      144·
      1 year ago

      NIMBY but country-level. “THEY DESERVE A COUNTRY! - but keep them out of ours. We don’t want the crime or poverty. And don’t tell the press or citizenry we said that.”

      :P

    • girlfreddy@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      146·
      1 year ago

      This is from the article, so nowhere near your tl:dr

      After fighting stopped in the 1948 war, Israel refused to allow refugees to return to their homes. Since then, Israel has rejected Palestinian demands for a return of refugees as part of a peace deal, arguing that it would threaten the country’s Jewish majority.

      • NoiseColor@startrek.website
        31·
        1 year ago

        Yes it’s a terrible tldr if you get into nit and grit of it. :)

        I can say that Palestinians are being used by islamist groups since the beginning of time and those groups care more for the destruction of Israel than anything else, including having a country named palestina.

        • girlfreddy@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          That’s fair. Kind of the same way as Afghanis and Iraqis have been used by Western nations to overthrow gov’ts that don’t want to make oil deals with said Western nations.

          It’s a game that costs innocent lives, no matter who the players are.

          • NoiseColor@startrek.website
            35·
            1 year ago

            Only that one is exploitation for practical reasons, one is religious. The first can be negotiated, the second cannot.

            This conflict cannot be solved by the west, Israel, or anyone else, but the Palestinians and for many decades they were pushed by hamas and Israel together to not go into direction of peace.