Egypt and Jordan repeat rejection of Gaza ‘voluntary migration’ calls

Egypt and Jordan have repeated their rejection of voluntary or involuntary Palestinian migration from Gaza and the West Bank, which is championed by right-wing Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich as the solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

On Thursday Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told a visiting delegation of US lawmakers that Egypt refused the transfer of Gaza’s 2.3 million people to restive northern Sinai. He argued this would destabilise the entire region.

During a Cairo summit on December 27th, Mr Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah demanded an immediate ceasefire and delivery of sufficient humanitarian aid to ease pressure on Gazans to emigrate.

In a statement published on the Egyptian presidency website, they reaffirmed their rejection of efforts to “liquidate the Palestinian issue” and “displace Palestinians from their lands”. They called for the establishment of a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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Having adopted the slogan, “No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt”, King Abdullah has said Israel’s expulsion of Palestinians into Jordan is a “red line” for the kingdom, which has absorbed Palestinians uprooted by the1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. More than half the 11.3 million people in Jordan are of Palestinian origin, and two million of these are UN registered refugees.

Mr Sisi and King Abdullah have indicated a new Palestinian exodus would put their peace treaties with Israel at risk.

They began to express concern over the transfer of Gazans and West Bankers as soon as Israel launched its Gaza campaign following the deadly October 7th Hamas-led attack on Israel.

Their fears intensified when the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, an Israeli think-tank founded in 2000, called the war a “unique and rare opportunity to evacuate the whole Gaza Strip”. Its finding coincided with the well-publicised leak of a plan for the coerced resettlement of Gazans in Sinai. This was drawn up by the Israeli intelligence ministry, an official research body that drafts proposals for the army and ministries.

The Times of Israel reported that prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office played down the intelligence ministry plan as a “hypothetical exercise”, but the paper said it “deepened long-standing Egyptian fears that Israel wants to make Gaza Egypt’s problem”.

Having been rebuffed by Egypt and Jordan, Mr Netanyahu and his coalition have approached other countries with the aim of securing their agreement to host Gazans. On Monday Mr Netanyahu announced to a meeting of his Likud party: “Our problem is finding countries that are willing to absorb Gazans and we are working on it”.

A senior source in the security cabinet told the Times of Israel that the Democratic Republic of the Congo “will be willing to take in migrants”. Chad is another African country allegedly contacted by Israel. Although emigration has been rejected by Palestinians and the international community, Gazans might be forced to leave if they have been rendered permanently poor, homeless and unemployed in devastated Gaza.

The Israeli government press office did not reply to The Irish Times’s request for a comment on the migration issue.

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