Israeli Forced Displacement of Palestinians from the Palestinian Territories Occupied in 1967 (The Gaza Strip: A Case Study)

Introduction:

Since the emergence of the idea of political Zionism — in the late nineteenth century — colonial projects appeared aiming to establish a Jewish state on Palestinian land, and these projects relied on expelling the original Palestinian inhabitants and reducing their demographic presence in their homeland, in exchange for bringing in Jewish immigrants from around the world. The Palestinian Nakba of 1948 constituted a pivotal turning point in this context, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their villages and cities, and this ongoing displacement continues to form one of the pillars of the Israeli settlement project.

In implementing its displacement policies, Israel relies on a mix of military, legal, and organizational tools that target emptying Palestinian land of its original inhabitants in favor of establishing Jewish settlements, and bringing about demographic and geographic changes that reinforce its control over the land. With the rise of right-wing currents in Israel and their adoption of more extreme policies, the issue of the forced displacement of Palestinians has become an existential threat to the Palestinian people and their national rights.

The issue of the forced displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is a stark example of Israeli colonial policies, as Israel targets the Strip as part of its plans to empty Palestinian land of its inhabitants. The Strip has witnessed successive waves of displacement since the Nakba, but the recent Israeli aggression — after October 7, 2023 — represents a new phase of escalation, as Israel has resorted to using excessive force and the systematic destruction of infrastructure, resulting in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of the Strip's residents under catastrophic humanitarian conditions.

The study focuses on analyzing the policies of forced displacement in the Gaza Strip, considering them part of a broader Israeli strategy aiming to control Palestinian land and impose a new demographic reality, and seeks to understand these policies by reviewing their historical roots, their legal dimensions, and their impact on Palestinian rights, while shedding light on the political and social repercussions of these practices on the Palestinian cause and the future of the right to self-determination.