Displacement of Gaza’s population: A round in the demographic struggle with the occupation

Gaza (Quds News Network) – Since the early weeks of the ongoing war in Gaza, Israel’s intention to displace the population of the Strip outside its borders has become apparent. Despite some Western and American cover for this move, it remains a core element of the political and military strategy of the occupation to date.

This calls for an exploration of the roots of this direction, the policies of its implementation, the positions regarding it, and the aspects of resistance to it.

Demographic concerns

The Zionist idea is based on the notion that “Palestine is a land without a people for a people without a land.” For this idea to be implementable, the land must genuinely become devoid of its Palestinian population.

It is well-known that Israeli settlement patterns are “replacement-oriented,” meaning they involve the expulsion of landowners and the settlement of others in their place. This is evident in the geography of cities and settlements in the occupation state built on the ruins of destroyed Palestinian villages in 1948.

Despite this concern, Zionism and the occupation state have not been able to achieve the complete goal of displacement for several reasons:

1. Palestinian resistance and their resilience on their land.
2. Lack of complete international cover for their displacement.
3. The occupation’s reliance, for some time, on a strategy of integrating and containing the “Israeli Arabs” (Palestinians) within the territories occupied in 1948.

Complicating matters for Israelis, the population growth rate of Palestinians is extremely high, making their numbers greater than Jews within the historical borders of Palestine, according to statistics from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Israeli politicians and researchers have cautiously viewed this as a “demographic bomb” that needs to be eliminated by any means.

Israeli Displacement Policies: In light of this aggressive Zionist ideology, the occupation state has committed to policies that push towards emptying the land of Palestine of its people.

During times of war, massacres and intimidation are deliberately committed, spreading rumors to drive Palestinians to flee their homes, cities, and villages, as occurred in the massacres of Deir Yassin, Qibya, and Dawamiya in 1948.

In times of peace, various means have been employed, including security, economic, and living constraints, such as restricting healthcare and education services, limiting the movement of Palestinians through hundreds of checkpoints erected between cities and villages in the West Bank, and controlling natural resources, preventing their exploitation.

Additionally, collective punishments, high fines, the non-recognition of Bedouin citizens and their displacement, and the approval of the Absentees’ Property Law, which enabled the occupation authorities to seize the properties of the displaced, have been implemented.

In peace negotiations, successive Israeli governments have shown inflexibility regarding the return of refugees to Palestine. Negotiations revolved around the return of only 50,000 refugees over a period of 10 years.

The strictness is also evident in the instructions and procedures for the “family reunification” of families scattered between Palestine and abroad.

Efforts to displace Gazans

The leaders of the occupation considered the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7th of last year a strategic blow. This operation might bring about a strategic change in the situation in Gaza, either in terms of land, population, or both. This could involve creating a buffer zone inside Gaza, occupying its northern part entirely and evacuating its inhabitants, or displacing the people of Gaza, or a large percentage of them, outside of Palestine, willingly or unwillingly, by land or sea.

This adds to traditional motivations, such as achieving the Zionist goal of seizing the land after eliminating the population, a desire to get rid of resistance or at least reduce its human reservoir, which enhances opportunities to seize gas fields in the waters off Gaza, neutralizing the threat to its gas extraction projects in the Mediterranean.

In this context, the occupation has created conditions that drive the people of Gaza since its occupation, tightening them by besieging Gaza since 2006 following the victory of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in legislative elections. UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Robert Piper, warned in 2017 that Gaza was on its way to becoming uninhabitable due to the deterioration of humanitarian conditions on all levels.

Displacement in the Ongoing War: In the ongoing war on the Strip, the occupation army adopted a policy of intimidation by tightening the siege to make it comprehensive. It stopped water, food, fuel, and electricity supplies. It also carried out targeted bombings aimed at causing a large number of casualties and extensive destruction, including undermining civilian facilities, hospitals, schools, and mosques. This was coupled with the display of cruelty in the arrest of Palestinians. The goal of this behavior is to drive the people of Gaza to migrate, reproducing a more criminal and brutal model of displacement seen in 1948 and 1967.

The occupation also used gradual evacuation orders for some areas of the Strip, leading to their assembly on the border with Egypt as a prelude to their displacement.

On the political level, the occupation government has proposed displacement as a solution to the conflict since the beginning of the war. It was clear from the political discourse of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Resisting displacement:

The resilience of hundreds of thousands of people in northern Gaza played a pivotal role in obstructing the displacement project and the occupation’s plan for the north. The occupation’s punishment of these individuals through tightening the siege aims to break their will and force them into accepting displacement, serving as a deterrent to the rest of the people in the Strip.

In this context, the stance of the Hamas movement, suspending negotiations with the occupation until aid and food supplies are brought into the sector, especially in the north, can be understood.

The phenomenon of thousands of displaced individuals returning to their homes in the northern and eastern parts of the Strip during the ceasefire period indicates a collective will to resist displacement.

It is noteworthy that there have been no attempts to breach the Egyptian borders so far, despite the intensity of the bombardment and the severity of hunger for nearly four and a half months. This is a rare occurrence in the history of conflicts and wars, demonstrating a keen awareness and determination to hold onto the land. This stems from the conviction of the limited possibility of returning to their homes if they leave Gaza, especially witnessing the Israeli government’s refusal to allow the return of the residents of the northern part of the Strip.

In conclusion, the battle with the occupation revolves around the people and the land with its sacred values. Palestinian resistance forms a barrier against geographic expansion and demographic displacement, extending beyond the borders of Palestine. Thwarting these projects cannot be achieved without broader Arab and Islamic engagement in confronting them. This provides the people of Palestine, especially Gaza, with the conditions and elements for resilience on their land.

Failure in this task jeopardizes the stability of numerous Arab and Islamic countries, exposing the legitimacy of their regimes to harm. Their inability to protect their national security, the interests of their people, and their core values is evident in the face of these challenges.