Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has unveiled a plan to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and facilitate their departure to other countries, describing the proposal as a realistic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Speaking ahead of closely contested Israeli elections next month, Ben-Gvir said that his plan would seek to relocate 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza during its first year before increasing the figure to about two million residents over the following six years. “It’s realistic,” Ben-Gvir said, claiming that there were countries prepared to receive Palestinians from the enclave, although he did not identify any of them.
Under international humanitarian law, the forced displacement of civilians from occupied territory is prohibited and can constitute a war crime. Ben-Gvir, however, framed his proposal as “voluntary emigration,” insisting that encouraging Palestinians to leave Gaza would not amount to forcing them from their homes. “We must encourage the emigration of Gaza’s inhabitants,” he said.
The proposal has raised concerns because of its potential implications for the future of Gaza’s Palestinian population and its similarities to calls for the relocation of Palestinians from the territory. For Palestinians, any attempt to remove large numbers of people from their homes evokes the memory of the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” referring to the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.
Ben-Gvir, a key figure in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, has frequently attracted international criticism over his hardline positions on Palestinians and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His Jewish Power party is now seeking to make the proposed population transfer a formal part of the next government’s agenda.
Ben-Gvir also said that the party would demand the creation of a government ministry responsible for emigration if it participates in forming the next administration. He described the proposal as the product of extensive preparation, saying it was “the result of a year and a half of work” and had been developed into a concrete policy.
The plan is outlined in a 20-page document titled “National Work Plan for Voluntary Emigration from the Gaza Strip,” which presents the proposed emigration programme as a means of addressing the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ben-Gvir’s proposal comes amid growing discussion within Israel’s government about the future of Gaza and the fate of its population following the war.
According to a report, Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party also plans to make adoption of the initiative a key demand in any negotiations to join Israel’s next government. The plan includes providing a destination country for each individual or family leaving Gaza, along with legal status, documentation, visas, travel funding, and initial housing.
It also includes vocational training, employment assistance, and support for up to 24 months, the report also said. The plan is based on 12 principles, including what it calls “voluntary departure” and a requirement that “no one leave without a country prepared to receive them and provide them with regulated legal status,” according to the report.
The plan further proposes “payments” to countries and entities involved in receiving those leaving Gaza based on “their performance, individual security screening and annual implementation targets.” It also calls for “monthly reports on the number of applications, approvals and departures,” as well as “costs and the extent to which those leaving are integrated into their destination countries.”
Other Israeli Leaders In Support Of Plan
The idea has also received support from other members of Israel’s far-right political establishment.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel had prepared plans to remove Palestinians from Gaza if the United States approved the proposal. Katz has advocated for what he describes as the voluntary emigration of Gaza’s population for several months.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has also proposed extending the concept beyond Gaza to Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.
The proposals have added to concerns over the direction of Israeli policy towards Palestinians, particularly as political parties position themselves ahead of the upcoming elections. While Ben-Gvir and other proponents describe the proposed departures as voluntary, the scale of the plan and the conditions facing Palestinians in Gaza have raised questions over whether such departures could genuinely be considered voluntary.
The debate is likely to remain contentious as Israel approaches the elections, with the future of Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict continuing to occupy a central place in the country’s political discourse.
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