February 9, 2024

All Eyes on rafah

Today, Netanyahu ordered “evacuation” from Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza where over 1.4 million Palestinians are crowded into displacement tents and apartment buildings, most having fled from other parts of Gaza. There is nowhere to “evacuate” in Rafah except to Egypt.

There is nowhere safe to evacuate in Gaza, and nowhere further south to go than the Sinai Peninsula. Through his announcement, Netanyahu is saying the quiet part out loud: Palestinians must leave Palestine, never to return.

Earlier this week, after rejecting the ceasefire proposal agreed to by the Palestinian resistance, that the war will continue until “total victory.” What is total victory to Israel? The expulsion of 1.4 million people in Rafah, and ultimately all 2.3 million in Gaza, facilitated through the southward exodus to Rafah over the last 120+ days.

Netanyahu’s language this week reflects the final stages of ethnic cleansing. The US and EU continue to act as if Israel will not actually expel people to Egypt. But after everything we’ve witnessed, we have no reason to believe that Israel will stop short of doing so.

Gaza needs aid let in and the siege lifted, not evacuations. Evacuation is a euphemism for expulsion: it is the Nakba reoccurring. Lift the siege on Gaza now! Prevent mass exodus to the Sinai! Our people refuse to submit to the fate of permanent exile. We will not abandon our land, until our last breath.