The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, Indonesia, and Pakistan have issued a joint statement in which they condemn the proposal of the Israeli Defense and National Security ministers, Israel Katz and Itamar Ben Gvir, aimed at promoting the emigration and expulsion of the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip.
In their statement, the eight Muslim countries "strongly condemn" the "incendiary" words of the two ministers "about the displacement of the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip and the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their land."
They also emphasize that "these statements are a provocation that constitute a flagrant violation of the principles of International Law, including International Humanitarian Law, and a direct threat to the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people."
The signatories warn that these proposals "represent a direct attack on international efforts to achieve peace," including those of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and stress that the Gaza Strip is "an integral part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories." In this regard, they maintain that the two-state solution is "the only path to a just and lasting peace," based on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Therefore, they urge the international community, and especially the UN Security Council, to "take on their responsibility" and "firmly oppose any attempt to impose a new demographic or geographical reality." Likewise, they express their rejection of "all attempts to erase the Palestinian cause or undermine the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."
Last Thursday, it was Ben Gvir who made public the plan to eliminate the vast majority of the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip through "voluntary emigration." The initiative foresees the creation of a specific ministry and would be applied if the current coalition revalidates the government in the elections scheduled for October.
One day earlier, Katz had assured that there is a project to promote emigration from Gaza that is being discussed and that the proposal remains "paralyzed" by order of Trump, whose initial plan for Gaza contemplated relocating the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Strip to other countries in the Middle East region.