How Israel’s “Send Palestinians to Congo” plan Evokes British Colonial Plans to send Jews to Uganda
H. Scott Prosterman 01/09/2024
Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Featured) – Nothing illuminates the mutant perversion of Zionism under Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi) more clearly than this: He proposes to forcibly evict all Palestinians from Gaza (Palestine), and move them to Congo. This is what Great Britain proposed in 1903, as a solution to the “Jewish problem.” Rather than allow Jews to immigrate to Palestine and create a new Jewish homeland, they proposed to move them to Uganda, where the British Crown had plenty of room.
Colonial Uganda, H/t British Online Archives
Bibi’s empowerment of “Israeli Proud Boys” such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Belezel Smotrich, gives him the chutzpah and hubris to openly discuss a “forced” migration, couched in Orwellian doublespeak to call it a “voluntary” migration.
The notion to resettle Gazan war refugees in the Congo came from Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, though some Israeli officials deny it is being seriously considered. This very proposal illustrates the deeply corrupt ideology that Zionism has become under Bibi: A movement that began to save Jews from the Holocaust has mutated into a murderous government, devoted to war crimes against other people, and to expel them from their own historical homeland.
Under Bibi’s leadership, Zionism has become a driving force in global anti-Semitism. It was already at an all-time high since WWII because of Donald Trump’s enabling and promotion of American and European Nazi movements. Anti-Semitism has been a scourge of so-called Western civilization for centuries. In the 21st Century it has been escalated by ignorance on both ends of the political spectrum for different reasons. Right-wingers have always hated Jews, and Evangelicals want to round us all up and send all the Jews to Israel so they can solve the “Jewish problem,” with their own forced migration. It’s the pre-requisite for their long-awaited Apocalypse. Anti-Semitism has escalated on the left in recent years out of the willful failure to distinguish Zionism as a political movement, from Judaism the religion. Republican Jews in the US are also fueling anti-Semitism, AND our own demise at the same time, with their “self-hating” loyalty to Trump.
Zionism began as a movement for survival, in reaction to centuries of brutal pogroms in Europe, culminating with the Holocaust, when six million Jews were brutally murdered en masse, along with gays, gypsies (Roma), dark-skinned people, and the mentally and physically disabled. Zionism began as a secular agrarian movement in the latter third of the 19th Century. The Jewish presence in Palestine began to slowly increase as Jews left Europe and slowly migrated to Palestine, where they lived harmoniously through the early 20th Century, with organic migration among the native Palestinians, Arabs and Druze populations who never left. As political Zionism gained momentum and the pace of immigration increased beyond absorption capacity, that’s when conflicts began.
When the 1st Zionist Congress was led by Theodore Herzl in 1897 in Basle, Switzerland, the goals were simple:
- The promotion of the settlement of Jewish agriculturists, artisans, tradesmen and manufacturers in Palestine.
- The organization and uniting of all Jews by means of appropriate local and international institutions, in accordance with the laws of the various countries.
- The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment and national consciousness.
- Preparatory steps toward obtaining the consent of governments, where necessary, to achieve the Zionist purpose
It contained no _expression_ of Jewish nationalism, per se; nor a religious obligation to fulfill a Biblical prophecy. Zionism began as a secular, agrarian movement. At the 1905 7th Zionist Congress, they rejected the “Uganda project” proposed two years earlier, and agreed to focus on creating agricultural and industrial settlements in Palestine. However, numerous Jewish leaders opposed any formation of a Jewish State in Palestine, as an impediment to the arrival of the Messiah. They felt the creation of an artificial political state would disrupt the spiritual return.
Bibi’s goal of wiping out Hamas is only a cover for his real agenda of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, according to Prof. Juan Cole. Bibi’s notion of “voluntary immigration,” is a fiction intended to euphemize his own war crimes, as he prosecutes a gratuitous war to avoid the consequences of his crimes against Israel.
Democracy Now! “Israel’s Push to Expel Residents of Gaza”
Now Israel has bombed the last hospital in central Gaza, forcing Doctors Without Border and relief agencies to abandon their patients for their own lives. They have bombed people out of their homes, destroyed all infrastructure, killed 22,500 people and injured 57,000. They even killed three Israeli hostages who survived 49 days in captivity, escaped and were trying to surrender. Bibi doesn’t care if his campaign of Palestinian genocide kills a few Israelis in the process. This is not an act of Judaism, but gross political murder.
Clearly, forced immigration of Palestinians is Israeli policy now. Of the proposal to deport 1.1 million destitute war refugees, Ben-Gvir said, “On the subject of voluntary emigration… I think it’s the right solution.” But he also conflated American political rivals as being in a fictional alliance. When asked about possible objections from the Biden administration, Ben-Gvir said, “Nikki Haley supports it, it is voluntary.” Haley hopes to run against Biden and can’t speak for his agenda. Ben-Gvir revealed that strategy all along has been to inflict so much misery on Gaza’s Palestinians, that they will want to go anywhere but their bombed out homes as he said, “hundreds of thousands will leave now” if given the option.
Haley has already become invested in the mass deportation of Palestinians. The Times of Israel reports she said, “They should go to pro-Hamas countries — Qatar, Iran, Turkey… send them there… Those are pro-Hamas countries. Haley told ABC News, “They should be going to the Rafah gate and [have] Egypt take them.” That’s a non-starter as Egypt can’t absorb them, and it gives Israel cover for war crimes from an American politician. But Haley lacks the standing tell any country to accept immigrants, given her position on US immigration. She also lacks any understanding of historical and political realities, namely that Turkey is part of NATO.
The Hamas massacres put a quick freeze on the regular, massive demonstrations in Israeli cities challenging Bibi’s legitimacy. It was an Israeli point of pride that 1000’s of protesters and military objectors suddenly closed ranks to defend the nation. But now that the patriotic responses have led to more Israeli deaths, including hostages killed by “friendly fire,” the movement to oust Bibi has quickly escalated. As with Trump, Bibi is now running on belligerence and fear alone. A chat page on Ha’aretz illustrates the growing opposition to Bibi’s efforts to remain in power, with Israeli commenters saying:
“Get Netanyahu out now. Urgently. He is a destroyer of the dreams of Israel’s founders, and a clear and present danger.”
“An IDF/Shin Bet coup supported by the public.is the only way. ASAP.”
“If Bibi goes, so goes the war. So goes the premiership. So goes the coalition. So goes the war on democracy.”
Some Israeli leaders deny that the Congo proposal is the agenda, and others object; this proposal will hopefully go nowhere, especially with US State Department’s expressed disapproval, calling it “inflammatory and irresponsible.” The global focus now is to strengthen efforts by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to heal, nurture and heal as many refugees as possible, and whatever can be done to mitigate Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.