My response to October 7 as my loyal readers might recall, was to hope for ways to let the noncombatants in Gaza get away from the violence, by land, sea or air. I pointed out that Ukrainians had a period of mass exodus in connection with the Russian intervention, or invasion, with civilians escaping in both directions from the front lines. Syrians fled a combination of drought and civil war, most over land.
The focus going forward, in Eastern Europe, will be civilians returning, to whatever extent practical, perhaps with assistance from outside agriculturalists, the FAO for example.
I take for granted that the FAO and IAEA might be needed to assess whether any toxins (e.g. depleted uranium) have crept into the food chain, just as local authorities are doing in Northern California, around the lithium battery storage facility fire.
Didn't Governor DeSantis of Florida preclude Florida's accepting any Palestinian refugees shortly after October 7? The premise to such declarations is that there would be an exodus of refugees, needing to go somewhere, anywhere other than the bombing theater. As it turned out, Gazans were told to slosh around inside Gaza whereas their prisoner status, as entrapped and besieged, would not be ameliorated.
For some reason, authorities felt compelled to move a million plus Palestinians as a group, to maybe Egypt or Jordan (both said no), to hastily thrown together refugee camps for the evacuees. I could see providing a default destination for those with nowhere else to go, and suggested one myself, but surely charitable groups, churches, NGOs, would rise to the occasion and accept Palestinians in places all over the world, besides Florida.
I realize that against the rhetoric of providing evacuation fleets and buses, more like in Yugoslavia, is the rhetoric about right of return and never leaving. However I have a hard time, from my distance, judging if the decision to stay is really voluntary, given no choice is given. Why call it an "open air prison" and then pretend that it's actually just a concentration of people eager to keep living in a slum?
OK, sure, better than a slum in many neighborhoods, but nevertheless a blockaded ghetto, a sieged land.
I'd get into arguments that ethnic cleansing, so-called (gentrification is another word for it), is at least way better than genocide (murder). Letting the victim run away versus trapping the victim in a dead end alleyway, is less traumatic for the victim.
I'm assuming Israeli authorities would be happy to let Palestinians leave en masse, and that this is what President Trump was also promising. I could see a lot of Palestinians choosing to stay, to work on building a new airport for example. But why not let family members take refuge elsewhere, given that Gaza is certainly a slum now, if it wasn't before October 7?
I see Chechnya built about 200 units for Palestinian refugees. That's far short of a million. Not all the boat people from Vietnam came to Portland either, but a lot of them did, with a network of NGOs to support them.
That's a scene I know something about given my agency (CUE) was a management hub for such refugee work in the aftermath of the American War in Indochina. I understand any African country saying "no, we won't take them all en masse, what a silly idea". That's like how Poland was thinking about Ukrainians: sure some, but not all.
That we have no news stories about American countries accepting any Palestinian refugees, or even making plans to do so, tells me that the world has bought in to the concentration camp model, and even though we're witnessing a steady slaughter, they're thinking evacuation is not a realistic goal. Why? Because Palestinians are too in love with olive trees? They just can't help themselves, poor things. That's the propaganda I'm seeing.
If I were trapped in Gaza with my family, being bombed, I'd be asking the world why I'm made to stay here. Don't tell me how much I love olive gardens. Let me out of here, and do it now. I don't care if that's what the Israelis want as well. Let me out of this cage with the rabid dog. Instead, the onlookers express pity for my plight. It's like Hunger Games. The viewer-voyeurs are using my suffering for their entertainment.
