Meanwhile, Egypt seems to get a free pass, minimal criticism for keeping its border locked down while being adjacent to a terrible conflict?
They could at least let the most vulnerable/sick/injured flee.
They could at least let the most vulnerable/sick/injured flee.
Al-Sisi, as reported in https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2023/10/12/Ga...:
> But the case of Gazans “is different”, he said, because their displacement would mean “the elimination of the (Palestinian) cause.”
If Israel were to let them through the border into Israel, there is no possible way to prevent Hamas militants from killing many many more people.
(Unless you mean to create temporary refuge camps heavily armed within Israel that would still be closed borders, which doesn't seem like an improvemnt over the current situation, if you know anything about the geography of the area.)
> Unless you mean to create temporary refuge camps heavily armed within Israel that would still be closed borders, which doesn't seem like an improvemnt over the current situation
You are right that they would have to remain in a confined space. Still, they wouldn't be in danger of being bombarded which would be a vast improvement. Compared with an evacuation into Egypt it would also have the advantage that people would presumably feel more confident that they would eventually be allowed to return (given that Israel would rather they returned to Gaza than remain indefinitely within Israel).
It all codes to attitude of "there is no such thing as a non-combatant Palestinian" which leads to collective punishment which is a war crime according to the Geneva convention.
I can't imagine Israelis haven't thought this through - so it seems premeditated.
Did you mean this? There is no right to return, for no one. I'm not returning to Polish Silesia, Palestinian descendants aren't returning to imaginary ancestral land.
On top of that though, it's not clear the humanitarian solution is opening that border. With many high level Israeli officials calling for Gaza to be ethnically cleansed, encouraging an evacuation from land that the Gazans might not be allowed back on to could be viewed in hindsight as assisting a crime against humanity.
Allowing people to escape murder is not "assisting with a crime against humanity", whereas stopping them from doing so is clearly exacerbating the crime against humanity.
Which is the point: Egypt isn't blocking Palestinian exits to stop Israel from ethnically cleansing Palestine, it is just counting on not letting that be done by pushing the Palestinians out as refugees being likely to create a pile of corpses that (1) Egypt won't need to feed and secure, and (2) Egypt can use internationally in political propaganda against Israel even more than it could use an expensive pile of refugees.
Sure, but then it would be following the agreement with Israel restricting imports that would be assisting with the ethnic cleansing more than allowing refugees out.
The Palestinians moved to Jordan after losing the 1967 war, started a "civil" war in Jordan and were expelled to Lebanon after losing in 1971. Only then they started the 1975 "civil" war in Lebanon.
If they let 1-2 mil Palestinians, the sinai penninsula would be taken over.