The Israeli Government is very unlikely to allow substantial rebuilding in Gaza. Why would they destroy all those buildings, only to have them rebuilt? I fear that their thinking is, ‘The people of Gaza now have to find houses, homes, elsewhere, as they should have done long ago.’
As I wrote The Origins and Future of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Rogerharper’s Blog (wordpress.com), it occurred to me that ‘It looks that the Israeli Government is systematically making the whole of Gaza uninhabitable so all the people have to move elsewhere. I hope this is an exaggerated interpretation.’ This understanding no longer seems so exaggerated because I have remembered what Israeli relatives have said to me of their view of the origin and solution to the ‘Palestinian Problem.’
‘The Palestinians were created by the Arab States’ say at least some Israelis. ‘Before the State of Israel, the people were not Palestinians, they were Arabs. When the State of Israel was created, Arab countries should have given their fellow Arabs homes in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, just as Israel gave Jews from North Africa homes in Israel. Instead, Arab countries condemned their fellow Arabs to refugee camps. For years, Arab leaders have refused to welcome their own people, incarcerating them in poverty as ‘refugees’, in order to make Israel look bad. Many Christian Arabs have seen sense and gone to live in other, Christian, countries. Moslem Arabs need to do the same. Go and live in Moslem Arab countries.
I guess that those with this view now say:
Hamas, through its attack on Israel and its obstinate holding onto hostages, has forfeited the homes of the people of Gaza. Hamas knew what they were doing; they knew that their fire would be met by far greater fire. They didn’t care enough about their own people to ensure they had homes. Releasing all hostages would have retained the homes of Gazans, as Hamas well knew. Hamas don’t care about their own people.
The people of Gaza, made homeless by their own leaders, now simply need to go to homes elsewhere. They are not refugees, they are outcasts from the Arab nations and it is time for the Arab nations to give them proper permanent homes. UNRWA is not needed. Rather UNRWA obscures the reality that these people are denied homes by their fellow Arabs.
The Hindus and Moslems who had to leave their homes on the creation of the State of Pakistan, are not condemned to ‘refugee camps’ near the border of Pakistan. Long ago they were given new homes, either in India or in Pakistan. To keep them homeless would have been playing with people’s lives to make political points which ignore the new reality. The Pakistanis and Indians didn’t do this, and nor should the Arab nations.
The inhabitants of Gaza, and of the camps in Lebanon and Jordan, now need to move elsewhere, as they should have done on 1947/8.
I do not agree with this Israeli view. I do not think the parallel with Pakistan is valid. I think Israel drove Palestinians from their homes and Israel should provide for those they made homeless. Jewish Scriptures contain a clear call to welcome and care for the stranger in the land. If Israelis see Palestinians as strangers in the land they have lived in for generations, so be it. Israelis should still apply the call of Jewish faith and care for them. Israel has welcomed many Jews, they could welcome a good number of Palestinians too.
We see the systematic destruction of the buildings of Gaza. The Israeli Government told the people of North Gaza to leave so that they homes could be wrecked. The buildings, not the people, were the target, although there was little concern about casualties among the people. We can tie this in with what we know of Israeli thinking. The question needs to be asked. ‘What intentions and plans does the Israeli Government have for the rebuilding of Gaza?’
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