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Not a new idea – Past attempts to resettle Gaza’s population were met with mixed success
All Israel News ^ | 02/07/2025

Posted on 02/07/2025 8:42:03 AM PST by SeekAndFind

With the world shocked, enthusiastic or outraged at U.S. President Donald Trump’s idea to take over the Gaza Strip and relocate its population, it is worth recounting the recent history of the area and the previous attempts to solve the Gaza problem through resettlement — which brought mixed success.

The problem began in 1948, during Israel’s War of Independence, a recent video by Kan News explained.

When the newly created Israel Defense Forces (IDF) pushed the invading Egyptian army back south, a flood of some 200,000 refugees fled ahead of it.

The IDF’s advance was halted at the northern end of what became the Gaza Strip, and the refugees settled there, creating a small, overpopulated enclave that was never intended to function as an independent entity but posed a continuous security threat at Israel’s southern flank.

Following the war, during negotiations at the Lausanne Conference of 1949, Israel offered to receive 100,000 Palestinian refugees and settle them within Israel on the condition that it would annex the Gaza Strip, but negotiations were unsuccessful, and the Gaza Strip remained under Egyptian rule.

In 1956, as part of the Suez Crisis (dubbed Operation Kadesh in Hebrew), Israel captured and held the Sinai Peninsula, including Gaza, for four months.

Many plans were discussed, and the government even approved the construction of the first settlement in Rafah, until Israel decided on its first Gaza withdrawal following heavy international pressure.

Ten years later, Israel captured the Strip once again during the Six-Day War of 1967. The Israeli government started a pilot project, attempting to convince Gazans to relocate to Jordan by offering them money, which was not successful.

Over the following decades, the Gaza Strip remained under Israeli governance. According to documents recently revealed by Kan News, the government, at the time, followed an unofficial policy of promoting voluntary emigration, including by intentionally keeping living standards low.

Despite this, only some 5,000 Gazans left the enclave.

The largest successful transfer of the population from Gaza came in 1971. At the time, there was a sharp increase in terror attacks emanating from the area, especially the cramped refugee camps in Jabaliya and Shati.

Then-IDF Southern Command Chief Ariel Sharon ordered a large-scale counterterror operation, relocating approximately 10,000 people to El-Arish in the northern Sinai Peninsula, which was under Israeli control at the time.

This, indeed, led to a sharp decline in the number of terror attacks — from over 400 to just several dozen a year, according to Ynet News.

However, the area became a terror hotbed once again. Then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin reportedly offered the Gaza Strip to Egypt as part of the peace negotiations in 1979 but was flatly refused.

Several years later, the Hamas terror organization emerged amid the violence of the First Intifada in 1987, deciding the course of the region for the coming decades.

Hamas violently took control over Gaza in 2007, ruling it until the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre probably sealed its fate and gave rise to the latest plan to evacuate its citizens — only this time, it is supported by one of the most powerful men in the world.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Gaza; Hamas; Hezbollah; Iran; Israel; Lebanon; News/Current Events; War on Terror; Yemen
KEYWORDS: egypt; gaza; gazabelongstoisrael; hamas; hezbollah; iran; israel; lebanon; rafah; resettlement; sinai; suez; tunisia; waronterror; yemen

1 posted on 02/07/2025 8:42:03 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

“The total oil and gas reserves were valued at a staggering $524 billion in 2019. But Israel does not have sole legal entitlement to the $524 billion, according to a UN report published in the same year.”

https://www.planetcritical.com/p/everybody-wants-gazas-gas


2 posted on 02/07/2025 8:47:16 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: SeekAndFind

Control their supply of Food Etc. and they will move.


3 posted on 02/07/2025 8:55:13 AM PST by Old Retired Army Guy (That's)
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To: SeekAndFind

Settle them in another Mooselim terroristic state. They’ll be right at home.


4 posted on 02/07/2025 8:55:34 AM PST by fwdude (Why is there a "far/radical right," but damned if they'll admit that there is a far/radical left?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Get rid of this evil trash. Either move them to a very well guarded island in Indonesia or Antarctica - far from civilized societies and peaceful human beings.


5 posted on 02/07/2025 9:05:03 AM PST by faithhopecharity ("Politicians aren't born, they're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: SeekAndFind

Nobody wants to live with these animals.
Even the Arabs want nothing to do with them.
I say air drop them into North Korea.
and don’t let them back out.


6 posted on 02/07/2025 9:13:59 AM PST by rellic (No such thing as a moderate Moslem or Democrat )
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To: Old Retired Army Guy

From what I understand, USAID has been cut off to them. So, some of their money has dried up.


7 posted on 02/07/2025 9:15:06 AM PST by Parley Baer
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To: SeekAndFind

Now the gazans have nothing but ruble and unexploded ordinance around the with no aid. That’s what you get for backing Hamas and starting a war with Israel. The U.S. is no longer your ally and you have no economy and no future in that location. The Muslims in that strip would rather die than relocate.

Your proposal is accepted.


8 posted on 02/07/2025 10:23:48 AM PST by DownInFlames (P)
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To: Parley Baer

Next will be the UN to be cancelled when Trump pulls out and kicks the UN our of the U.S.


9 posted on 02/07/2025 10:24:44 AM PST by DownInFlames (P)
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To: SeekAndFind

I wish we could get the white South Africans to Israel and take the Palestinians to South Africa. Just an even swap.


10 posted on 02/07/2025 10:39:46 AM PST by A_perfect_lady (The greatest wealth is to live content with little. -Plato)
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To: SeekAndFind

A third temple for peaceful Palestinians in Gaza? Sounds like a good deal to me.


11 posted on 02/07/2025 12:03:34 PM PST by batazoid (Natural born citizen)
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To: SeekAndFind

no matter what else, the Fakestinian Arabs are very, very dangerous evil=doers and need to be removed far, far away from any and all civilized (and peaceable) human societies

President Trump makes a good point about sending them to Indonesia. Indonesia is not the primary bad actor in any of this. But it still acts as an enemy state “for ideological” or religious reasons, or whatever.
More to the point, it has many many many islands. 17,508 islands in fact. You read that right, 17,508 islands.

An island will be the best place for the Fakestinians because with just a few planes or drones and ships the terrorists and their supporters can be kept away from any more attacks on innocent people.

That Indonesia doesn’t want them is understandable. Nobody wants such savages. Still, it will be a really great thing for the world. And again, an island provides a very good way to keep the danger safely confined. Let’s have the Arab nations buy one of these 17,508 islands and help pay for the security patrol.

an extra benefit could be the entertainment value of their sharing an island with traditional head-hunter peoples (although it is said that head-hunting has been significantly phased down there, the islands of Borneo and New Guinea have tribes which may possibly still include some headhunting activity)


12 posted on 02/07/2025 12:04:14 PM PST by faithhopecharity ("Politicians aren't born, they're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: fwdude

My thought is the Houthi’s like them so much they can have them. Relocate them to the settlement of New Gaza in the former north Yemen.


13 posted on 02/07/2025 12:31:10 PM PST by Fraxinus (My opinion, worth what you paid.)
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To: SeekAndFind

When Trump gets Gaza all fixed up, he can fix up Alleppo.


14 posted on 02/07/2025 2:38:36 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Brian Griffin

Very relevant information.


15 posted on 02/08/2025 1:58:10 PM PST by BlackVeil ('The past is never dead. It's not even past.' William Faulkner)
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To: Old Retired Army Guy

Ever heard of Königsberg?

All the ethnic Germans were expelled from the territory as a consequence of World War II. Today, it is part of the Kalinigrad Oblast and a part of Russia even if there is no common border.

16 posted on 02/11/2025 6:22:32 PM PST by Vigilanteman (The politicized state destroys aspects of civil society, human kindness and private charity.)
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