This week, Defense Minister Israel Katz directed the IDF to prepare for the voluntary emigration of Arab residents from the Gaza Strip, including making special arrangements for their departure by sea and air.
This coincided with President Trump doubling down on his proposal for the United States to occupy and rebuild Gaza. The White House insisted that no US boots on the ground would be needed to transform Gaza into “one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on earth,” as Trump put it, envisioning the Gazans relocating to “new and modern homes in the region.”
Despite fierce Arab and other international opposition, Trump’s radically out-of-the-box thinking appears to have ignited interest in several potential host countries, three of them in Africa.
On Wednesday night, Israel’s consul general to the Pacific Southwest Israel Bachar stated that alternative destinations were under consideration.
“From what I’m hearing, we’re talking about three different states,” Bachar told CBS News, adding in showman’s fashion: “And now you’re going to get your newsworthy piece. We’re talking about one in Morocco, two in Somalia, and adjacent to Somalia, there is another area called Puntland. That’s what they’re looking at—maybe—to relocate them to these three places.”
ALT NEU PUNTLAND
Yacob Mohamed Abdalla, Puntland’s deputy minister of information, told The Telegraph on Thursday that the state would be willing to host Gazan refugees, as long as their relocation was voluntary.
“To start, I can tell you that Puntland is located in the corner of Africa, and Palestine is in the Middle East. There is no reason to deport someone from their country to another without their choice to move,” he said.
However, he expressed support for free movement. “That is no problem,” Abdalla stated. “We welcome it at that time, and it is for the sake of international law.”
Puntland, officially known as the Puntland State of Somalia, is an autonomous territory, established in 1998, that later became a federal member state. Situated in northeastern Somalia, its state capital is Garoowe, in the Nugal region.
As of 2016, Puntland had a population of approximately 4.3 million. Like the rest of Somalia, Islam is the main religion of the Puntland people.
The population density in Puntland is estimated at 20 people per square kilometer. In the Gaza Strip, the density is 5,967.5 people per square kilometer.
Puntland boasts 1,600 km (990 miles) of coastline, rich in fish and other marine resources. The region’s economy is further supported by livestock, frankincense, myrrh, gum arabic (a key ingredient in traditional lithography used in printing, paints, glues, cosmetics, and various industrial applications), manufacturing, and agriculture. Agricultural products such as mangoes, bananas, guavas, lemons, sugarcane, and peanuts are cultivated on plantations throughout the state.
Puntland has the lowest poverty rate in Somalia, at 27%, compared to 50% in Somaliland and 57% in Mogadishu. Experts attribute this to higher consumption and greater labor force participation.
Households in Puntland consume more per capita and a greater variety of items. The lower poverty rate is not linked to household size, as the average size in Puntland is 5.2, compared to 5.7 in Somaliland and 4.5 in Mogadishu. Puntland also performs better in various well-being indicators. For example, the literacy rate in Puntland is 64%, above the national average of 55%. Households in Puntland also excel in education outcomes like enrollment and educational attainment. Additionally, 70% of households in Puntland have access to improved water sources, compared to the national average of 58%. These factors suggest that Puntland’s stronger performance on non-monetary well-being indicators contributes to its lower poverty rate.
CAN YOU SAY “EUROPE?”
On Thursday, Minister Katz stated that Norway, Spain, and Ireland are “legally obliged to allow any Gazan resident to enter their territories” due to their recognition of a Palestinian state.
Spain and Ireland swiftly rejected the suggestion. Spain’s foreign minister, on Thursday, stated, “Gazans’ land is Gaza, and Gaza must be part of the future Palestinian state.”
It should be noted that more than 13 million people have fled the war in Syria, which began more than 10 years ago. In 2021, Spain granted asylum to some 500 Syrian refugees. There was no suggestion that this was damaging the integrity of the Syrian state. Over 3,000 refugees were resettled in Ireland.
An in-depth survey conducted by the Washington Institute for Middle East Policy among residents of the Gaza Strip found that over 50% were interested in leaving the Strip and taking their family members with them.
The survey was conducted by the Center for Arab Affairs at the Institute and was carried out through in-depth research into public sentiment in the Gaza Strip, in conjunction with telephone surveys conducted directly with residents in the Gaza Strip.
At least 53% of Gaza residents would emigrate immediately if given the opportunity.
Furthermore, 49% of those surveyed even emphasized that if they had the financial means to smuggle themselves out of the Strip, they would do so and smuggle their families out as well.
The vast majority of US media has suggested that encouraging Gazan emigration was a violation of international law. Of course, since the start of the Syrian upheavals in 2010, as millions were seeking shelter in EU countries, no one suggested that helping these refugees find shelter somehow violated international law.
The skewed view of US and European media is based on the assumption that Gaza Arabs prefer the squalor and ruins of the Strip and would resist an effort to find a better life elsewhere. Never mind that Gazans who could afford it paid Hamas and the Egyptian border guards from $5,000 to $10,000 per capita to be allowed to flee Gaza.
