I was mind-boggled to read this news.
Roughly 100 Palestinians from Gaza will travel to Indonesia for construction work under a new Israeli pilot program, according to Channel 12 News, which reported the initiative as the first stage of a larger plan to facilitate voluntary migration from the Hamas-run enclave.
. . .
If successful, the program will be transferred to Israel’s newly established Migration Directorate, a unit created within the Defense Ministry by Defense Minister Israel Katz and approved by Israel’s Security Cabinet just days earlier. The Directorate is tasked with organizing “safe and controlled passage” for Gazans seeking to relocate abroad, including logistics for land, air, and sea departures.
According to the report, the 100 workers headed to Indonesia — a Muslim-majority nation with no formal diplomatic ties to Israel — will be employed in the construction sector. Despite the diplomatic gap, cooperation was reached to facilitate the pilot program, marking a quiet milestone in Israel’s regional outreach efforts.
The long-term goal is to enable thousands more Gazans to take advantage of similar employment-based migration opportunities, provided host countries are willing to participate. While international law allows for return migration, Israeli officials have emphasized the aim is to support permanent resettlement elsewhere, alleviating the pressure of Gaza’s humanitarian and security crisis.
There's more at the link.
A few questions come to mind:
- Is Indonesia aware that almost no Arab nation will accept Gaza Palestinians, due to their (well-earned) reputation for being surly, disruptive and just plain difficult?
- Are Gaza Palestinians aware that Islam, as practiced in Indonesia, is a rather different variety of the faith to what they're used to in the Middle East?
- If any Hamas members are part of the Gaza contingent, are they aware that the Indonesian security forces - who've had their own problems with Islamic terrorism - are likely to give them even shorter shrift than they received from Israel?
Peter
15 comments:
I am not sure Achmed Lunchbucket from Gaza has many other choices.
Better to launch many, inexpensive initiatives and see which ones work than to over-analyze what cannot be analyzed and then suffer paralysis.
I think the camel is about to stick its nose under the tent.
It sounds like a good idea, get them away from a horrible environment (and that is without the Israelis kinetically remodelling it) and give them a chance to do useful work and live normal lives with hope, especially with a more benign version of Islam.
It worked in Australia after all!
Mind you I fully expect most of them will mess it up. Unfortunately for everyone.
Jess, I wonder what camel braised into a nasi goreng, with a side of peanut sauce, might taste like?
Without anecdotal evidence and opinion, could item 1. be backed up with something, anything, . . . something that could be read, or a video? And could item 2. be given some expansion, an explanation, etc. (again, something that could be read or looked at). Thank you.
I'd say it's a good start and worth trying.
As mentioned above, at this point just about anything is worth trying.
The big problem is transporting enough people to make a difference - we have not only changed infrastructure, but also expectations for travel to the point it is very expensive to move large quantities of people.
I've heard talk of similar projects with Argentina but haven't seen anything concrete.
Jonathan
Might work. Indonesia is a Muslim country and they crack down hard on bullshit...heavy emphasis on the "find out" part of FAFO. Indonesia is also a lot bigger that people think, it's a set of islands but, end to end its almost as big as the US. Plenty of room to disperse "newcomers". Indonesians are also, by and large, hard working, conservative people. Trouble makers and layabouts will be handled locally.
Spreading the poison is not stopping the poisonous effects.
The Indonesians know all this.
Rather expect a percentage of the abrasive sort will struggle to survive their contract.
Indonesians do not hesitate to eliminate trouble makers. Even if they're fellow Muslims.
The IDF is running this operation and a senior military officer is in charge. Who do they cut the deal with in Indonesia (or any other recipient states) who can give reliable assurances that these Gazans will be given a fair shot at equitable employment? Some Palestinians wiil just want a job, some will happily assimilate, some won't, some will make some money and want to go home, and some will be on the run from past mistakes. I know little about Indonesia and it's social structure, but apparently there's enough poverty and poor people have to look after themselves to keep what they have when cheap foreign labor moves in. If the Israelis can pull this off at meaningful scale it's a diplomatic masterstroke, and if the candidates for emigration are screened for undesirables it could lead to bigger things, like an embassy and consulates. Israel needs faithful friends. And room to maneuver.
rick m
It's worth a try, something needs to be done.
"almost no Arab nation will accept Gaza Palestinians, due to their (well-earned) reputation for being surly, disruptive and just plain difficult?"
That's pure BS. Arab nations do not accept Palestinians in large numbers to avoid being accused of justifying the ethnic cleansing. Also, there's no such thing as Gaza Palestinians - they are all from Palestine, aka Israel.
wojtek
The gazans will find out that Indonesia will expect them to work .
100 down, 2 million to go.
Indonesia's bad luck is Gaza'a good fortune.
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