The Ukrainian Crisis Mustn’t Become an Excuse to Further Colonize Palestine
The travesty of it all is that while those estimated 500,000 Ukrainians who Sputnik predicts could flee to Israel as refugees might be driven by what they personally regard as their fear of so-called ‘Russian occupation’ (as they imagine it in their minds despite Moscow’s vehement denials that it has any such plans), these new arrivals would actually end up advancing Israel’s own occupation of Palestine.
Sputnik published a piece on Tuesday titled “Israel Might Absorb 500,000 Ukrainian Refugees By The End of The Year But Does The Public Like It?”, which alarmingly suggests that half a million more people might flood into that entity by the end of the year. According to their report, “90 percent of those, who have arrived in the country from the Ukraine so far are not Jewish, and the state is mulling over legislation that would enable it to absorb more newcomers.” This follows Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s shuttle diplomacy over the weekend to Russia and Germany, during which time he also reportedly called Ukrainian President Zelensky on three separate occasions within a 24-hour period.
The media revealed that one of purpose behind the premier’s decisive diplomatic intervention was to ensure the safety of Ukraine’s Jewish community, which adds credence to Sputnik’s report that an exponentially larger number of refugees from that country might soon to come to Israel than the 15,000 that they estimated will enter by the end of this month. Despite it being too early to tell whether this dramatic prediction will come to pass or not and there being no clear idea yet of how many of those half a million potential refugees might be members of the same family, everyone should still prepare for this scenario just in case, especially the indigenous Palestinians and their global support community.
Everyone is aware that while Israel is a member of the United Nations, some countries don’t acknowledge its legitimacy due to the unresolved issue of Palestine stemming from the post-World War II partition that prompted what’s perhaps the world’s most intractable conflict. Furthermore, even among those that recognize Israel, practically all of them condemn its policy of establishing so-called “settlements” in the territories that it’s illegally occupied after 1967. If the 500,000 figure unfolds like Sputnik predicts might happen and even if most are part of the same family, then there might be an urgent need for around 150,000-200,000 or more places to house these people.
It’s not known whether Israel has the excess housing capacity though, which might in turn prompt it to build more “settlements” on the basis of providing these refugees with places to live. That, however, would be immoral and also illegal in terms of international law since such construction projects infringe on the rights of the indigenous Palestinians that still lay claim to their pre-1967 borders (and some still haven’t given up their claims to pre-partition Palestine either). It’s very possible that Israel might exploit the refugee-related consequences stemming from Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine as an excuse to further colonize Palestine.
Should that happen, then one could objectively describe Israel’s interest in absorbing so many refugees – including those that aren’t Jewish and therefore illegible for its subjectively promulgated so-called “Law of Return” – as “Weapons of Mass Migration” (WMM) according to the concept first prominently introduced by Ivy League researcher Kelly M. Greenhill over a decade ago. What’s meant by this is that those innocent people’s mass exodus from their homeland would be weaponized by Israel for strategic ends related to its desire to further entrench its illegal control over Palestine’s pre-1967 borders in order to create a fait accompli that the indigenous people would essentially be forced to accept.
It’s perhaps partially in anticipation of achieving this grand strategic end through such immoral and illegal means that Bennett appointed himself an envoy of peace in this crisis through last week’s shuttle diplomacy that took advantage of Israel’s equally excellent ties with all parties to the conflict, both direct ones like Russia and Ukraine as well as indirect parties like the EU and the US. The sympathy that many governments and their societies have been misled by the US-led Western Mainstream Media’s infowar against Russia into having for Ukraine’s cause could even mute international criticism of this possible colonization plan through WMM.
The travesty of it all is that while those Ukrainians who flee to Israel might be driven by what they personally regard as their fear of so-called “Russian occupation” (as they imagine it in their minds despite Moscow’s vehement denials that it has any such plans), these new arrivals would actually end up advancing Israel’s own occupation of Palestine. This scenario is credible considering Israel’s track record of exploiting literally anything in pursuit of its plot to steal more Palestinian land. It might difficult to stop, but that doesn’t mean that the international community must accept it. For these reasons, Palestinians and their global supports must preemptively expose this scheme as soon as possible.
