There is a German word for what is being proposed – Judenrein or todayArabrein
There is nothing new in Donald Trump andNetanyahu’s plans for the ‘evacuation’ of the Palestinians from Gaza. TheNazis’ devoted much time and energy to a similar ‘problem’.
From 1939 onwards hundreds ofthousands of Jews, Poles and Gypsies, werepreventing the Warthegau, thatpart of Poland which was conquered and incorporated into Greater Germany, beingsettled with German colonists. Most of them were expelled to the Generalgouvernment,that part of Poland into which they intended to pour all the racial ‘mush’(Himmler).
Volksdeutsche of Łódź greeting German cavalryin 1939
The Nazis managed, with difficulty,to resettle half a million Volksdeutsche in their place just asIsrael hopes to settle Jews in Gaza.
Hans Frank
Many were the conflicts within theNazi bureaucracy between the Gauleiter Arthur Greiserand the Governor-General of the Generalgouvernment, Hans Frank. For those who are interested inNazi resettlement policies you can read Christopher Browning’s article on Naziresettlement policies.
Arthur Greiser
It was only when the Nazi plans forthe resettlement of the Jews to the East were thwarted that they turned toextermination. So it is with Gaza, except that the Zionists reversed theprocess, first they began the extermination process and only then turned to expulsion.
Palestinian journalists demonstrate outside the Palestinian Authority against the banning of media
Yet despite this that pathetic poodleof US imperialism, Keir Starmer and his contemptible fool of a ForeignSecretary, David Lammy, could not bring themselves to criticise Trump. As theGuardian’s Peter Walker put it, ‘Prime minister and colleagues use politicalcode to push back at proposal without directly criticising US president.’
EvenEd Davey of the Lib Dems criticised the loathsome Trump whilst pushing for theresurrection of that old lame duck, the two-state solution. Starmer has builthis career on slavish loyalty to the American Empire and Trump is not going tostop him.
Starmertold us how he was ‘moved’ by the image of EmilyDamari, the Israeli hostage who was reunited with her family. The images ofPalestinian hostages, who had been starved, beaten and tortured, did not makeany impression on this apology for a human being. However it is doubtful that anythingcould move Starmer apart from a subsidy from one of his millionaire friendstowards his wardrobe.
WhenIsrael was established as a ‘Jewish’ State it fabricated anarrative that the Palestinian refugees had run away, on orders from the Arabregimes, despite pleas from the Zionists to stay. This was comprehensivelydebunked, first by Erskine Childersand Rashid Khalidiand then Israeli historians Benny Morris and Ilan Pappe.
Iwas brought up to believe this nonsense.Israel had closed its archives and even reclassified documents that hadbeen released in order to hide the truth. [see Burying the Nakba: HowIsrael Systematically Hides Evidence of 1948 Expulsion of Arabs].
Benny Morris explained that ‘Defense Ministry officialsapparently hope their actions will raise doubts about the conclusions andcredibility of various scholars.’ This enabled peoplelike Israel’s vile Ambassador, Tzipi Hotoveli, to proclaim thatstories of the Nakba were an ‘Arab lie’.
Todaythere is no pretence. Israelis in their overwhelming majority want thePalestinians of Gaza (and the West Bank) either expelled or exterminated. Some 82% of Israeli Jews support Trump’splan and just 3% consider the proposals immoral. The rest think it impractical.This is what memory of the Holocaust has become in Zionist hands.
Itis worth bearing in mind that Israelis are far more racist towards thePalestinians than Germans were to Jews. Anti-Semitism in Germany was neverrespectable. The Nazis had to work hard to persuade Germans and they neversucceeded. Anti-Semitism was confined to the core of the Nazi party itself.Between 1930 and 1933 Hitler downplayed anti-Semitism to the point ofnon-existence.
Ofcourse people will find this difficult to accept given the way the media portraysthe reasons why Hitler came to power. However all serious historians agree. Forexample Ian Kershaw wrote in PopularOpinion and Dissent in the Third Reichthat the more than five million extra votes that the Nazis obtained in the 1930elections‘were in no sense anti-Semites’. DavidCesaranisuggested in The Final Solution thatHitler’s attacks on Jews ‘diminished to vanishing point’. Even Zionist historian Yehuda Baueraccepted this.
In1939 Hitler began to fulfil his desire to create ‘living space’ lebensraum for the German people byconquering first Poland, then Western Europe and finally Russia. That is preciselywhat Israel is doing. Achieving its Arab-free living space.
For15 months they carpet bombed Gaza under the pretence that they were seeking todestroy Hamas when it was obvious to anyone, bar Jews for Genocide and thatinveterate liar Starmer, that Hamas was the one thing they hadn’t destroyed.
Hospitals,schools, clinics, universities, journalists, residential homes and agriculturalland – all were subject to the an intensity of bombing that made thedestruction of Nuremberg, Dresden and Hamburg seem like a picnic.
Allthe while Butcher Biden supplied the 2,000 lb bombs that enabled thedevastation. Now Trump comes along and says that of course Palestinians can’tlive in the rubble whilst still continuing to supply the 2000 lb bombs. Thehypocrisy and mendacity of our rulers knows no bounds.
Wehave a weak and shaky ceasefire, which hasn’t stopped Israel killingPalestinians in Gaza although the bombing has (temporarily) stopped. Thereisn’t an agreement that Israel has made that hasn’t been broken and they arestill killing people in Lebanon. Netanyahu and much of his coalition would liketo restart the slaughter because to the Zionists not enough Palestinians haveyet died.
Yetwhatever Israel does, as far as Starmer, Trump and our own Jews for Genocide inthe form of the Board of Deputies, are concerned it is acting in self-defence. Itis an interesting legal concept as to whether an occupying power has the rightof self-defence. Perhaps Russia has such a right in Ukraine! Maybe we shouldconsult our favourite ‘human rights lawyer’ Sir Kid Starver.
Ifear that Israel will find a pretext to restart the war against Gaza. WhatTrump has done is to provide Israel with a pretext to break the ceasefire, asNetanyahu has promised, after the first phase, in which case we will see acontinuation of the genocide. This is a very real danger. Of course it will bedifficult politically to restart the slaughter but that will depend on theAmerican administration. One thing is for certain. The Arab regimes could stopit in a day if they stopped the oil. Andthe Arab masses could stop it if they overthrew those regimes.
InsteadIsrael’s war on the Palestinians has spread to the West Bank. For the past 5years I have raised funds for the Al Tafawk Children’s Centrein Jenin refugee camp. Three times the Israeli military has deliberatelywrecked the interior of the Centre.
TodayI have no idea if Al Tafawk is even standing because much of Jenin’s refugeecamp has been blown up andnumerous people, including children have been killed. Yet still Western leadershave the audacity to about Israel’s ‘self-defence’. If only Goebbels had hadsuch good propagandists as the BBC provide he could have achieved far morewithout the opprobrium.
Israeli Soldiers Celebrate Destruction in Jenin
Israel’sattack on Jenin we should not forget was preceded by 25 days of violenceby the Quisling Palestine Authority. Yet even now organisations like Britain’sPalestine Solidarity Campaign are afraid of calling these Quislings by theirname. First Israel banned Al Jazeera and then the PA banned it.
See Two Days after Speaking to the PalestineChronicle – Jenin Journalist Killed by Palestinian Authority
Trump’splan though is unlikely to be carried out. The last thing the Egyptian andJordanian states want is hundreds of thousands of Palestinians determined toseek their revenge. Despite their role as collaborators, neither regime has adeath wish.
Ifthe Zionists cannot achieve an empty Gaza by ethnic cleansing then mass murderand genocide is the alternative and the only thing standing in the way areHamas and the Palestinian resistance.
Thisof course is where Britain’s political police come in. They will do theirutmost to arrest and persecute anyone who supports resistance to Israel’s genocide.All in the name of ‘the fight againstterrorism’. This is the state of British ‘democracy’ today and we can relyon Britain’s compliant judiciary to do their best to help.
Therehas been one of those absurd ‘debates’ about whether Israel is committing genocide.As if not using the word changes the reality. I suggest people read YuvalAbraham’s article in +972 Magazine, Bomb the area, gas thetunnels: Israel’s unbridled war on Gaza’s underground as to whatIsrael’s tactics were. Abraham writes that:
The Israeli army intensively bombarded residential areas in Gaza whenit lacked intelligence on the exact location of Hamas commanders hidingunderground, and intentionally weaponized toxic byproducts of bombs tosuffocate militants in their tunnels…
The investigation, based on conversations with 15 Israeli MilitaryIntelligence and Shin Bet officers who have beeninvolved in tunnel-targeting operations since October 7, exposes how thisstrategy aimed to compensate for the army’s inability to pinpoint targets inHamas’ subterranean tunnel network. When targeting senior commanders in thegroup, the Israeli military authorized the killing of “triple-digit numbers” ofPalestinian civilians as “collateral damage,” and maintained close real-timecoordination with U.S. officials regarding the expected casualty figures.
So there we have it. Israel was prepared tokill hundreds of Palestinian civilians on the off chance that they might kill amember of Hamas. And then creatures likeLammy & Starmer dare to call Hamas ‘terrorist’.
Inthe process three Israeli hostages — Nik Beizer, Ron Sherman, and Elia Toledano— were killed by asphyxiation as a result of a Nov. 10, 2023, bombing thattargeted Ahmed Ghandour, a Hamas brigade commander in northern Gaza. Even ifthe bombs didn’t kill them then the carbon monoxide they produced did.
Israelsoldiers were not willing to fight in the tunnels but thought that carpetbombing would do the trick. Fortunately it didn’t and at the end of the warHamas and the Resistance was killing more of Israel’s war criminal militarythan it was at the beginning.
Imagineif Hamas exploded a bomb in the middle of Tel Aviv because they believed asenior officer of the Israeli army was passing by? Or Russia bombed a market place because itbelieved a Ukrainian general was doing his shopping there. The pages of thetabloids would be filled with blood curdling rhetoric.
Israel’sfigures of Hamas fighters killed were always phony. Every male civilian theykilled was a Hamas ‘terrorist’ but at the end of the day the Zionists ended upfooling themselves, which was why, when the ceasefire came into effect,Israelis were stunned to see hundreds of Hamas fighters in their distinctiveolive green uniforms handing over the healthy and well-fed Israeli captives,unlike the emaciated and tortured bodies of the Palestinian captives thatIsrael had seized.
Israel’s2,000 lb bombs were supplied by the United States despite knowing how theywould be used but ‘bloody’ Blinken stymied any declaration that human rightsviolations were being carried out. Why?
Becauseunder the Leahy law if theUS State Department declared that Israel was committing war crimes then the U.S. Government would have been barredfrom using funds to assist in those crimes.Instead investigations into Israel’swar crimes never progressed beyond an initial stage.
"אז יאמרו בגויים הגדיל ה' לעשות עם אלה, הגדיל ה' לעשות עמנו היינו שמחים"
— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) February 4, 2025ועוד יותר טוב ועוד יותר טוב.
תודה לך הנשיא טראמפ.
Together, we will make the world great again 🇮🇱🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/3Wjx0VZRTK
Netanyahuand his far-right partner Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister, ‘proud homophobe’ and fascist areitching to get back into the bombing on the grounds that if you haven’tsucceeded yet try, try and try again. But what is clear is that Hamas and thePalestinian Resistance has not been defeated and is unlikely to bedefeated.
Atthe moment Israel’s genocidal lust and desire for more living space is nowtranslating into war on the people of the West Bank.
EvenTrump cannot simply declare that he wants Palestinians to leave Gaza because hewants the gas fields in the sea off Gaza. Instead he dresses it up asconcern for the Palestinians. He wrote that the Palestinians in Gaza would have"far safer and more beautifulcommunities, with new and modern homes, in the region."
Thereis nothing new in this duplicity. As Abdaljawad Omar wrote:
the same language has been used before.In 1830, President Andrew Jackson justified the Indian Removal Act as a necessarymeasure for the “happiness” of Native Americans, ethnically cleansing themunder the guise of protecting their way of life....
The logic remains unchanged —displacement framed as pragmatism, ethnic cleansing cloaked in the language oforder and progress, and for Trump: Palestinians as an obstacle to a beautifulbeachfront where everyone could live, including “somePalestinians.”
InTrump’s impossible Gaza plancan still do a great deal of harm Michelle Plitnick wrote that ‘in one of the cruelest, most repulsivetwists of the Trump argument, he actually arguedthat his plan for ethnic cleansing was intended to benefit the Palestinians.’
This could be so magnificent. But moreimportantly than that is the people that have been absolutely destroyed thatlive there now can live in peace in a much better situation because they areliving in hell. And those people will now be able to live in peace. We’ll makesure that it’s done world class.
Itis noticeable that German leaders have said next to nothing. But why shouldGermany’s leaders say anything? The worse it gets for Palestinians the morethey can come to terms with their own holocausts. After all, if even the Jews perpetratea holocaust then it can’t be that bad.
TodayGaza is unliveable in because Israel deliberately made it so. For thePalestinians to be removed would be to reward the war criminals. That Trump cansuggest it and the media can actually debate it seriously demonstrates how lowmoral standards have sunk in the western world.
Onewonders what Western leaders would say if Putin had carpet bombed Ukraine andthen said he was removing the population to save them further trauma and heexpected Britain, Germany and France to take them in and foot the bill! All inorder that they could have ‘beautiful’ lives free from Russian bombs! Yet thisis what Trump is saying and our leaders cannot even spell out the implicationsfor fear of offending his fragile ego.
Weare entering a period of great uncertainty. The Palestine solidarity movementhas a responsibility to step up its protests and begin to make lifeuncomfortable for those in power. Instead of allowing the Metropolitan Policeto disrupt our protests we should be disrupting the rhythms of London. Thefirst thing we should be doing is to hold the demonstration which was initiallyplanned for the BBC – with or without the agreement of Britain’s politicalpolice.
TonyGreenstein
Seealso
The Gaza 'war' was a lie, as is theceasefire. Trump just told you
Jonathan Cook
The PA andIsrael are allies in silencing the truth
Iwitnessed firsthand the PA’s brutality against journalists in Gaza. Its possible return does not bode well for us.
Published On 1 Feb 2025
A group ofPalestinian journalists protest in front of the Palestinian Legislative Councilheadquarters against the decision of the Palestinian Authority to closeBethlehem-based private TV channel, Al-Roah, in Gaza City on October 17 1999[File: Mohammad Saber/AFP]
On December 28, 21-year-old journalism student Shatha Al-Sabbagh wasassassinated near her home in Jenin. Her family accused snipers from thePalestinian Authority (PA) deployed in the camp of shooting her in the head.Al-Sabbagh had been active on social media, documenting the suffering of Jeninresidents during the raids by Israel and the PA.
Just a few days after Al-Sabbagh’s assassination, the authorities inRamallah banned Al Jazeerafrom reporting from the occupied West Bank. Three weeks later, PA forcesarrested Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamad Atrash.
These developments come as the Israeli occupation has killed more than200 media workers in Gaza and arrested dozens across the occupied Palestinianterritories. It has also banned Al Jazeera and refused to allow foreignjournalists to enter Gaza. The fact that the PA’s actions mirror Israel’sreveals a shared agenda to suppress independent journalism and control publicopinion.
To Palestinian journalists, that is hardly news. The PA has never beenour protector. It has always been a complicit partner in our brutalisation.That is true in the West Bank and it was true in Gaza when the PA was in powerthere. I witnessed it myself.
Growing up in Gaza, I watched how my people were oppressed by Israeliforces and by the PA. In 1994, the Israeli occupation formally handed over theStrip to the PA to administer under the provisions of the Oslo Accords. The PAremained in power until 2007. During these 13 years, we saw more collaborationwith the Israeli occupation than any meaningful attempt at liberation. Forjournalists, the PA’s presence was not just oppressive, it waslife-threatening, as its forces actively stifled voices to maintain its fragilegrip on power.
As a journalism student in Gaza, I experienced this suppressionfirsthand. I walked the streets, witnessing PA security officers looting shops,their arrogance apparent in the brazen act of theft. One day, when I attemptedto document this, a Palestinian officer violently grabbed me, ripped my camerafrom my hands, and smashed it to the ground. This wasn’t just an assault, itwas an attack on my right to bear witness. The officer’s aggression only ceasedwhen a group of women intervened, forcing him to retreat in a rare moment ofrestraint.
I knew the risks of being a journalist in Gaza and like other mediaworkers, I learned to navigate them. But the fear I felt near the PA forces’ambush points was unlike anything else. That was because there was never logicto their aggressive actions and no way to anticipate when they might turn onyou.
Walking near the PA forces felt like stepping into a minefield. Onemoment, there was the illusion of safety, and the next, you faced the brutalityof those who were supposedly there to protect you. This uncertainty and tensionmade their presence more terrifying than being on a battlefield.
Years later, I would cover the training sessions of Qassam Brigades underthe constant hum of Israeli drones and the ever-looming threat of air strikes.It was dangerous but predictable – much more so than the actions of the PA.
Under the PA, we learned to speak in code. Journalists self-censored outof fear of retribution. The PA was often referred to as “cousins of Israelioccupation” – a grim acknowledgement of its complicity.
As the PA was fighting to stay in power in Gaza after losing the 2006elections to Hamas, its brutality escalated. In May 2007, gunmen inpresidential guard uniforms killed journalist Suleiman Abdul-Rahim al-Ashi andmedia worker Mohammad Matar Abdo. It was an execution meant to send a clearmessage to those who witnessed it.
When Hamas took over, its government also imposed restrictions on pressfreedoms, but its censorship was inconsistent. Once, while documenting the newpolicewomen’s division, I was ordered to show my photos to a Hamas officer sohe could censor any image he deemed immodest. I often managed to bypass theserestrictions by swapping my memory cards preemptively.
The officers weren’t fond of anyone overriding their orders, but insteadof outright punishment, they resorted to petty power plays—investigations,revoked access, or unnecessary provocations. Unlike the PA, Hamas did notoperate within a system of coordination with Israeli forces to suppressjournalism, but the restrictions journalists faced still created an environmentof uncertainty and self-censorship. Any violation on their part, however, wasmet with swift international condemnation—something the PA rarely faced,despite its far more systematic repression.
After losing control of Gaza, the PA shifted its focus to the West Bank,intensifying its campaign of media suppression. Detentions, violent crackdowns,and the silencing of critical voices became commonplace. Their collaborationwith Israel was not passive; it was active. From surveillance to campaigns ofviolence, they play a crucial role in maintaining the status quo, stifling anydissent that challenges their power and the occupation.
In 2016, the PA’s collusion became even more apparent when theycoordinated with Israeli authorities in the arrest of prominent journalist andpress freedom advocate Omar Nazzal, who had criticised Ramallah for how ithandled the suspected murder of Palestinian citizen Omar al-Naif at its embassyin Bulgaria.
In 2017, the PA launched a campaign of intimidation, arresting fivejournalists from different outlets.
In 2019, the Palestinian Authority blocked the website of Quds NewsNetwork, a youth-led media outlet that has gained immense popularity. This waspart of a wider ban imposedby the Ramallah Magistrate’s Court that blocked access to 24 other newswebsites and social media pages.
In 2021, after the violent death of activist Nizar Banat in the PA’scustody sparked protests, its forces sought to crack down onjournalists and media outlets covering them.
In this context, the prospect of the PA returning to Gaza following theceasefire agreement raises serious concerns for journalists who have alreadyendured the horrors of genocide. For those who survived, this could mean a newchapter of repression that reflects the PA’s history of censorship, arrests andstifling of press freedoms.
Despite the grave threats that Palestinian journalists face from Israeland from those who pretend to represent the Palestinian people, they persevere.Their work transcends borders, reflecting a shared struggle against tyranny.Their resilience speaks not only to the Palestinian cause but to the broaderfight for liberation, justice and dignity.
Eman Mohammed is an award-winning Palestinian-American photojournalistand Senior TED fellow currently based in Washington, DC.
