Tel Aviv, Israel
AP
–
Israel is discussing with South Sudan about the possibility of resetting Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the war-torn East African nation.
Six people familiar with the issue have confirmed consultations with the Associated Press. It is unclear how far the consultations have progressed, but if implemented, the plan would relocate people from one war-torn land to another, where there is a risk of hunger, raising human rights concerns.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants to realize President Donald Trump’s vision of relocating much of Gaza’s population through what Netanyahu calls “voluntary immigration.” Israel has come to a similar resettlement proposal to its other African countries.
“As I know, I think it’s right to follow the laws of war, allow the population to leave and enter with all the force against the remaining enemies there,” Netanyahu said in an interview with I24 and Israeli television stations on Tuesday. He did not mention South Sudan.
Palestinians, rights groups, and many of the international community have rejected the proposal as a blueprint for forced expulsion in violation of international law.
For South Sudan, such a deal could help build close ties with Israel. It is a military force that has now been rarely challenged in the Middle East. It is also a possible invasion for Trump, who broached the idea of resetting Gaza’s population in February, but appears to have retreated in recent months.
Israeli deputy minister, Sharlen Haskell, said that she had arrived in South Sudan for a meeting on her first visit by a senior government official, but had no intention of broaching the subject of Palestinian movement.
In a statement called the report that South Sudan’s Foreign Ministry is engaged in discussions with Israel about the unfounded resettlement of Palestinians.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said he had not commented on private diplomatic conversations.
Joe Schravik, founder of a US lobbying company that works with South Sudan, said he was briefed on the consultations by South Sudan officials. He said he plans to visit the country to investigate the possibility that Israeli delegations would establish camps for Palestinians. No known dates are set for the visit. Israel did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the visit.
Szlavik said there is a high chance that Israel will pay for the makeshift camp.
Edmund Yakani, who heads the South Sudan civil society group, said he also spoke to South Sudan officials about the discussion. Four additional officials with knowledge of the discussion confirmed that it was being conducted on the condition of anonymity.
The two Egyptian officials told the Associated Press, who has been aware for months about Israel’s efforts to find a country that will embrace Palestinians, including contacts with South Sudan. They said they are lobbying South Sudan for taking Palestinians.
Egypt is deeply opposed to the plan to move Palestinians from Gaza, where they share borders and fear refugees’ influx into their territory.
The AP previously reported on similar consultations that Israel and the US launched with Sudan and Somalia, countries that are also working on war and hunger, as well as the breakaway region of Somalia known as the Somalia Land. The status of these discussions is unknown.
Szlavik, who was hired by South Sudan to improve relations with the US, said the US knows about the arguments with Israel but is not directly involved.
South Sudan hopes the Trump administration will lift the country’s travel ban and remove sanctions from South Sudan’s elite, Szlavik said. It already accepts eight individuals who have been wiped out by the administration’s massive deportation.
The Trump administration has put pressure on many countries to promote deportation.
“Cash-bound South Sudan needs to have allies, economic interests and diplomatic security,” said Peter Martell, a journalist and author of a book on the country.
According to the book, Israeli Mossad Spy Agency provided assistance to South Sudan during a decades-long civil war against the Arab-controlled government in Khartoum ahead of its independence in 2011.
When asked if there was a Quid Pro Quo with South Sudan, the State Department said the decision on issuing visas was “in a way that prioritizes maintaining the highest standards for US national security, public safety and immigration law enforcement.”
Many Palestinians may want to leave Gaza at least temporarily and escape the hunger crisis adjacent to war and hunger. However, they roundly refused to permanent resettlement from what they consider to be an integral part of their national homeland.
They fear that Israel will never allow them to return, and that a massive departure will annex it to Gaza, as sought by the far-right ministers of the Israeli government, allowing them to annex it to Gaza and reestablish the Jewish settlement there.
Yet even Palestinians who want to leave are unlikely to take a chance in South Sudan among the most unstable and conflict-filled countries in the world.
South Sudan struggled to recover from the civil war that broke out after independence, killing nearly 400,000 people and plunging the country’s pockets into starvation. Oil-rich countries are plagued by corruption and rely on international aid to feed 11 million people. This is a challenge that has grown since the Trump administration wiped out foreign aid.
The peace agreement reached seven years ago is fragile and incomplete, with the threat of war returning when major opposition leaders were placed under house arrest this year.
Palestinians in particular may find themselves unwelcome. The long war for independence from Sudan pitted mainly the south of Christianity and Animist against the north of Arabs and Muslims.
Yakani, a civil society group, said that South Sudanese need to know who is coming and who they are planning to stay, or that there may be hostilities due to “historical issues of Muslims and Arabs.”
“South Sudan should not be a dumping ground for people,” he said. “And we shouldn’t accept bringing people along as something to negotiate tips to improve our relationship.”
