Manu Joseph: Trump’s Gaza plan may be more pragmatic than it looks

The second-best is not Donald Trump’s original idea. Such a plan was mooted around the time Israel was formed in 1948, and later by Jewish nationalists. It was never a popular idea. 

Long before Trump pitched it as an American real-estate redevelopment plan, it was disliked by those who represented the Palestinian people, those who were conscious of their moral compass and those who did not want the problem to end because conflict was their business. It was also disliked by Arab nations that loved Palestinians from afar and seemed reluctant to have them settling in their territory. Trump probably knew that—which was why he said the people of Gaza could be taken in by “humanitarian" Arab nations.

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The relocation of Gaza’s Palestinians, who number half the number of passengers who take the Delhi Metro everyday, to resolve one of the greatest problems of the modern world is not as outlandish as it seems at first glance. Certainly not as a logistical problem.

Gaza’s Palestinians have been relocated before in huge numbers. The wealthy and lucky among them left. Many live in other Arab nations, and also in the US and Europe. Much of the Palestinian elite did ‘relocate’ to other countries, leaving the poor behind to fight for the Palestinian cause.

This is a familiar story in every conflict zone. I saw it as a child in Madras among the swarms of middle-class Tamils who fled elsewhere (the rich fled to the UK).

The correct way to frame the relocation question is this: Now that the Palestinian elite live outside Palestine, can the poor too be relocated to nations ready to take them?

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Across the world, and for ages, the poor have relocated for better prospects. Look at the Indians who were deported by the US. They faced no violent conflict here. Yet, they left India, endured conditions worse than ultra marathons, climbed hills and almost died along the way, all to enter the US.

If there is a secret referendum among the people of Gaza on their willingness to move out of the debris to other Arab nations, I am confident most will say ‘yes.’ Because the poor in a poor region tend to have the exact opposite view of their rich expats.

Many people around the world who want poor Palestinians to stay put in Gaza and fight for a Palestinian state actually live in places that evicted natives. What do you think our places were before; and where did those people go? They were expected to pack their things and disperse, and that is what they did. That is the history of all big cities. But Israel is in a more complicated place.

Here is a brief history of the conflict’s origin. In the late 19th century, the Jewish elite of Britain came up with the idea of going back to their mythical promised land, Palestine, to escape a violent bias against them. This bold idea found support from the Jewish elite globally. Also from the mainstream British and European elite, possibly because they wanted the ‘Jewish problem’ to go away. 

It might seem bizarre today that Europeans could just go somewhere and claim land, but it was the golden age of racism. It is as though they did not see natives as real people. When Jewish settlements in Palestine began, half a million Arabs lived there. They were stateless. Many were nomadic. As Jews settled in larger numbers, skirmishes began between local Arabs and settlers. 

The idea of a Palestinian identity was not formed yet. It was a creation of the Arab elite in response to the rising power of Jewish settlers in the region. Once the state of Israel was created, most Arab nations denied its right to exist, but the brilliant little nation overcame its bigger foes and kept expanding to push Palestinians into slivers of land. One of these was Gaza.

While Palestinians want their own sovereign state, Israel fears an independent Palestine next to it because it would be easier for extremist groups like Hamas to execute their stated dream—the obliteration of Israel.

Also Read: Palestinian statehood: Speed up its realization

If Palestinians vacate Gaza, what happens to their wish for Palestinian statehood? Would the inland West Bank suffice? The chances of a Palestine state would look bleaker than ever before. But then, the world is only pretending that Palestinians have not lost. This is at the heart of the trouble.

In a more ancient world, which was a less compassionate place, wars ended conflicts decisively. The losers were all killed or subsumed. The meaning of loss was very clear. But the modern world does not recognize defeat. Now, the defeated linger. They can survive long years as stateless people, bereaved and maimed. And if they are given a choice to escape their torment and move to another place for lives of dignity, there is an army of faraway humanitarians who won’t give them even that chance.

Those who scoff at Trump’s relocation plan, do they have another solution to the problem? Of course. This is their solution: the people of Gaza should magically shed Hamas and any other band of armed thugs Iran may fund, and talk peacefully with Israel, which will magically start believing that Palestinians would make excellent neighbours.

This is the mainstream plan of the global intellectual world, endorsed by people who consider Trump’s relocation plan “improbable." They had also said that about Donald Trump’s presidency.

The author is a journalist, novelist, and the creator of the Netflix series, ‘Decoupled’.