Where should Palestinians go to make way for Gaza Trumpworld?

I think it a fair question especially since Egypt and Jordan have said ‘not here’.

The question arose when my nemesis gleefully posted a YouTube video; ‘Trump’s Gaza Plan Unveiled: Is This Biblical Prophesy Unfolding?’

As a response I asked the question whether we should welcome Palestinian refugees here in Australia. Just for a change, he responded with his own words; “Somewhere that they feel at home linguistic and cultural, there are about 12 Islamic countries who are wanting a peaceful Middle East. They who want to return are to be welcomed if they are not a threat to peace.”

In other words, “No!”

Since 1948, according to the line of thinking in what he posts, the threat to Israeli peace has been Palestinians upset because their lands were being taken from them. They dare to resist the takeover, the colonisation of their lands.

The region formerly known as British Mandated Territory of Palestine; the British taking over the occupation from the Ottoman Empire which collapsed during WWI.

The British, without letting the Palestinians know what they were doing, wrote the Balfour Declaration which laid the groundwork for creating a Zionist state in Palestine. The UN declared the State of Israel after WWII, one of the first actions the newly formed UN did. Oh, I forgot (and so did the Israelis), that the land was to become a shared space, Israelis and Palestinians living peacefully together. Two states, the Two State Solution as ratified later in the Oslo Accords.

Negotiation of the declaration was essentially that the Palestinians to take it or leave it. They were denied a voice.

In the lead-up to the British leaving the mandated territory in 1948, the Israelis, under the leadership of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, in what we today would call a terrorist attack, bombed the King David Hotel which was the centre of the British administration in 1946. The period leading up to that event had seen the rise of a number of Israeli Zionist militia which sought to quell Palestinian opposition to the growing immigration of Zionist Jews from Europe who were taking over their lands.

The immediate actions of the Israeli forces on the announcement of the UN declaration forming the State of Israel was to destroy Palestinian villages and farms, an action called the Nakba, the catastrophe, which saw hundreds of villages destroyed and displaced about 750,000 Palestinians who sought refuge in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. Of those Palestinians who remained many found shelter in the Egyptian territory of Gaza, the Gaza Strip, which became contested territory during the growing immigration of Jews settling from war torn Europe, but it became a virtual prison with the passage of time. Israeli control included the construction of secure fencing, the limiting of fishing rights to a narrow stretch of coast line and a naval blockade limiting the ability to bring freight in or out of the enclave. All supplies including essential services such as food, medical supplies, building materials, power, water, sewage was controlled from Israel.

Palestinian movement in and out of Gaza was strictly controlled with check points manned by armed guards. Some Palestinians worked in Israel and had to queue daily to leave for work and to return after work, and passage through depended on the mood of those manning the entry and exit points. Exit or entry could take hours of frustrating hold ups, waiting for permission to be granted… or denied, according the whim of the gate keeper.

Gaza was a virtual prison, the crime of the inhabitants: being Palestinian. And we wonder why there has been the occasional flair up, culminating in the attack of October 2023.

The words of my nemesis are interesting; ”They who want to return are to be welcomed if they are not a threat to peace.”

Looking at the history of Palestine/Israel, I do suggest that the greatest threat to peace, pretty much since the Balfour Declaration has been the Palestinian resistance to having their lands taken from them, having their villages destroyed, being expelled from their homeland, and that is an ongoing threat when we look at the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

The greatest threat to peace has been the settlers, the Israelis making their ‘Biblical promised land’ their home.

So what to do with those who do not feel safe returning to the wasteland that is Gaza?

President Trump is probably quite happy to send them to any of those 12 countries my nemesis refers to, without naming them. But Jordan and Egypt have said they cannot take them.

Jordan currently has over 2.3 million refugees, most, but not all enjoying full citizenship which affords them the right to work and passports to enable travel. A most unusual benefit afforded those refugees.

Egypt has not welcomed refugees yet many came from the 1948 Nakba, mostly Christians, but they and their descendants have never been naturalised, never granted citizenship. The numbers are guessed to be between 50,000 and 110,000 but since the Hamas/Israeli war it is estimated that about another 115,000 Palestinians have crossed into Egypt.

Lebanon already is home to about 250,000 refugees from the various conflicts; 1967, 1972, and some intifadas around the turn of the century, not to mention those being displace from the West Bank and Golan Heights, an ongoing territorial grab by the Israelis.

Syria is host to about 450,000 refugees from those conflicts and has just a few issues to deal with, like reconstruction after 13 years of civil war.

Other nations in the region include Saudi Arabia. No, not interested, they have poo-hoo-ed the Trump suggestion.

Iraq? Mmmmm, still reeling after the invasion in search of non existent weapons of mass destruction, still reconstructing with the help of the multi-national oil corporations who are stealing their natural resources.

Kuwait? In the same boat really, besides it is barely larger than a postage stamp, and a sand dune covering oil reserves.

Qatar? Bahrain? United Arab Emirates? Could probably use some labour for the ongoing development of the city states. Their track record in ensuring safe working conditions is a bit on the nose though. It seems the preferred may be slave labour.

Yemen? Iran? Probably not all that welcoming.

Turkey? Currently hosts the largest refugee population in the world, about 4 million, so they would more than likely not welcome another influx.

It just so happened that I needed to visit some-one near where I used to live. I hadn’t been there for about fifteen years and so was interested to see what changes had occurred. I passed by a church I used to be a member of and next to it, on the next block was an Islamic Mosque. I did some quick research and found that in the Perth region there are now 10 Mosques spread throughout the region and about the same number of Synagogues, although they are mainly in the northern suburbs.

I have not heard of any troubles between the churches, the mosques and the synagogues, yet there is a sizeable population of adherents to each faith in the Perth region. We have not had synagogue or mosque burnings, not even graffitied.

Where I live, in the northern suburbs, we have a very mixed population with immigrants from Africa, the Middle East, South America, Europe, Asia and we seem to have very little conflict. No gun fights, not nasty signage on the homes of ‘strange’ people, coloured ones, turbaned ones. Much the same in the southern suburbs.

I really do get the impression that people who come here are looking for somewhere peaceful to live, somewhere that is safe, especially those who come from war zones, from the Sudan, Somalia, The Middle East, from religious discrimination in India.

An African woman I net several weeks ago told of the brutality she escaped from. She told of a group of young men being tied, a pit dug for them, they were marched into the pit and it was filled in. As she told the story she held her 10-year-old son to her. She lives with the trauma of that time, she revels in the peace and acceptance she finds here.

Australia has been a safe haven for people from all over the world, from strife torn regions, from wars, from oppression, from religious conflict.

So would we, could we, should we make a few Palestinian refugees welcome here?

 

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