The proposal is contained in a 20-page document with the euphemistic title of “National Work Plan for Voluntary Emigration from the Gaza Strip”.
Despite the use of the word “voluntary”, the plan will be seen as coercive by the international community because of the dire conditions imposed on Gaza’s population by Israel and because of Ben-Gvir’s explicit intention: to remove Gaza’s Palestinian population.
Earlier this year, an independent UN inquiry found that Israel continued to commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza.
Ben-Gvir’s comments follow hard on the heels of comments by Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, who said Israel was seeking the approval of the Trump administration to displace Palestinians from Gaza, which he claimed was still under discussion after being “frozen” by Trump.
Katz, at a conference hosted by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, said Israel would facilitate the emigration “by any means”, implying a policy of coercion.