The op‐ed testifies to the growing prominence of what was once an extremist position within [the neocolony]: the call to push the remaining Palestinians out of historic Palestine. […] In 2016, a Pew survey found that almost half of [the neocolony’s] Jews supported the idea that Arabs should be “expelled or transferred from Israel.” According to Jewish studies scholar Shaul Magid, the far right’s success in the November 2022 election further “revived the idea of transfer.”
[…]
Once discussed plainly as a demographic and security strategy, the idea of expulsion is now being presented as a humanitarian response to the devastation in Gaza. […] According to Magid, this repackaging of expulsion as humanitarianism has allowed the idea to take root among mainstream [neocolonists]. Oren Persico, a journalist at the independent [neocolonial] media watchdog The Seventh Eye, told Jewish Currents that “transfer is a prelude for the repopulation of Gaza by Jews,” and the popularity of both ideas is rising simultaneously: According to a recent Channel 12 poll, 44% of [neocolonists] are now supportive of reestablishing Jewish settlements in Gaza.
[…]
Influential conservative think tanks such as the Misgav Institute and the Tikvah Fund have also contributed to recasting the idea of Palestinian expulsion as [neocolonial] munificence. […] In the last month, a striking number of [neocolonial] officials have endorsed the idea of expulsion, now on humanitarian grounds. On November 19th, [neocolonial] intelligence minister Gila Gamliel wrote a Jerusalem Post op‐ed calling for “the voluntary resettlement of Palestinians in Gaza, for humanitarian reasons, outside of the Strip.”
(Emphasis added.)
For whatever it may be worth:
Despite its resurgent popularity, Persico said that the idea of expulsion “still hasn’t penetrated the heart of the mainstream.” So far, neither [the neocolony’s] international allies nor its own security establishment have officially announced the permanent expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called the proposal a “non‐starter,” adding that it was opposed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and “virtually every other leader,” while Egypt President Abdel Fattah al‐Sisi has expressed fears that such a move would turn the Sinai into “a base for launching operations against Israel” and would end up “liquidat[ing] the Palestinian cause.”
[Neocolonial] Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and army chief‐of‐staff Herzi Halevi, as well war cabinet ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, reportedly view the proposal as “an unrealistic fantasy” as well as “a despicable and immoral plan.” Even Netanyahu has publicly stated that he has no intention to construct settlements in Gaza, likely due to his wariness of the costs of reoccupying the enclave.
Quoting The Holocaust and the Nakba: A New Grammar of Trauma and History, page 95:
The Holocaust that sought the annihilation of the Jews of Europe did not end with the termination of anti‐Semitism and the reintegration of Jews based on the fundamentals of a democratic and liberal citizenship but unfolded in a binary new reality that integrated the essences of anti‐Semitism and colonialism. As a result of the Holocaust the Jews left Europe, which is what the anti‐Semites wanted, with the [Fascists] at the forefront during the thirties, and this took place through the immigrant Jews’ integration into a settler‐colonial enterprise led by Zionism in Palestine.
(Emphasis added.)
I am noting this because of the parallels with the present situation: much as Zionism went from being an antisemitic concession to ‘compensation’ for the Shoah, many are seeking to rebrand Palestinians’ expulsion as altruism rather than cruelty.