#documentary / On The previous Israeli attempt to encourage "voluntary emigration" of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip
The proposals being heard against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza, to transfer the residents of the Strip to other countries, are not new. Dr. Amri Shefer Raviv, a historian of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, examined in his research a similar attempt made by the Israeli government immediately after the Six Day War.
In the months after the Six Day War, the Committee for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories drafted a document that was meant to outline the lines of action for controlling the conquered territories. The first and most important paragraph defined in the draft document: "A policy aimed at the departure of a maximum number of Arabs from the held territories".
From then on, Israel consistently dealt with the question of how to encourage the Palestinian residents of the territories to leave the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - without provoking international criticism against it. Unlike the West Bank, where about a quarter of the residents left immediately after the war, almost no resident left the Gaza Strip.
Initially, Israel hoped that a political agreement would solve the refugee problem and determine in an orderly manner the fate of the Gaza Strip and its residents. As time passed, when it was understood that a political agreement and a solution to the refugee problem were not on the horizon - Israel moved to a policy of encouraging emigration. It was a quiet policy aimed at pushing people to leave the Gaza Strip individually - whether by providing incentives to leave or pushing them to seek a better life by deliberately maintaining a low standard of living in the Strip. At the same time, Israeli representatives made efforts to reach agreements with foreign countries - including in Latin America - that would be willing to absorb Palestinian refugees for a fee.
