2 Possible Outcomes for Gaza: Top Israeli Historian

Israeli leaders have called on the "voluntary" migration of Gazans who have not been killed yet in the enclave

The two-state solution between Israel and Palestine is dead and the two realistic options after the U.S.-backed Israeli massacre in Gaza is either another Nakba or a one-state solution, according to a top Israeli historian.

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Ilan Pappé, an Israeli historian and professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, told journalist Afshin Rattansi that he agrees with the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy who says the end of the Gaza war will likely either be another forced migration of Palestinians or one state.

“So it is either a total catastrophe, or, hopefully, building a very different future for both Palestinians and Jews in the historical land of Palestine,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there will be no Palestinian state as long as he’s in charge. The Israeli leader has reportedly bragged in private that he is the only Israeli leader who could keep a two-state solution from taking hold, said giving the Palestinians statehood would be a “huge reward” for the 7 October Hamas attack.

“Israel categorically rejects international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians,” Netanyahu said, according to Reuters. “Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.”

Limor Son Har-Melech, a member of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party, called for Israel to turn Gaza into one large settlement after the bombing campaign ends, which is in line with many in the government. 

“There is no escape from returning and fully controlling the Gaza Strip, full control that will include extensive and flourishing settlement in the entire strip,” she told a conference named “Returning to the Gaza Strip.” She continued, “Not like the Gush Katif settlements that were concentrated in a few isolated areas, but settlements for the entire length and width of the strip.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also said: The “correct solution” is “to encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents to countries that will agree to take in the refugees,” Smotrich told members of his Religious Zionism party, according to the report. He said, “Israel will permanently control the territory of the Gaza Strip.”

Aluf Benn, the editor of Haaretz, wrote in this month’s Foreign Affairs that it is important to divide and conquer to maintain the status quo of no Palestinian state. He once told his fellow party members in 2019 that, “‘Whoever opposes a Palestinian state,’ said Netanyahu, ‘must support delivery of funds to Gaza because maintaining separation between the P.A. in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.’”