Middle East

Israeli Lawmakers Call for the West to Take in Gaza Refugees

‘RELOCATION’

“Even if countries took in as few as 10,000 people each, it would help alleviate the crisis.”

Smoke rises above Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, November 14, 2023.
Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

A pair of Israeli lawmakers wrote an article Monday calling for the West to “welcome” families from Gaza who “have expressed a desire to relocate.” The op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal was written by Danny Danon, a former Israeli representative to the U.N., and Ram Ben-Barak, the ex-deputy director of the Mossad. The lawmakers write that it is crucial for the international community to consider ways to “help civilians caught in the crisis” in Gaza, and that “one idea” is for Western countries to “accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate.” “Even if countries took in as few as 10,000 people each, it would help alleviate the crisis,” the pair wrote. The op-ed, which some social media users described as a call for ethnic cleansing in Gaza, did not address what would become of the enclave after the current conflict.

Read it at The Wall Street Journal