NETANYAHU LOBBIED EU TO PRESSURE EGYPT INTO TAKING REFUGEES FROM GAZA: REPORT

Tue 31 October 2023:

A new report by the Financial Times says Netanyahu attempted to convince European Union leaders to put pressure on Egypt to take refugees from the Gaza Strip

People briefed with the discussions told the British publication that the idea was put forward in meetings with European officials last week. They said the proposal was floated by countries such as Austria and the Czech Republic in private conversations that led up to a summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday.

However, European powerhouses such as Germany and France dismissed the proposal as unrealistic, pointing to Egyptian officials’ resistance to the idea of accepting refugees from Gaza, even temporarily.

Egypt has repeatedly said that Palestinians should not move away from their ancestral lands in order for them to be able to achieve a longstanding dream of nationhood. On Sunday, the White House said that “ensuring that Palestinians in Gaza are not displaced to Egypt or any other nation” was on the agenda of a phone call between United States President Joe Biden and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Egypt has long feared that Israel wants to force a permanent expulsion of Palestinians into its territory, as happened during the war surrounding Israel’s independence. Egypt ruled Gaza between 1948 and 1967, when Israel captured the territory, along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The vast majority of Gaza’s population are the descendants of Palestinian refugees uprooted from what is now Israel.

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, has said a mass influx of refugees from Gaza would eliminate the Palestinian nationalist cause. It would also risk bringing militants into Sinai, where they might launch attacks on Israel, he said. That would endanger the countries’ 1979 peace treaty. He proposed that Israel instead house Palestinians in its Negev Desert, which neighbors the Gaza Strip until it ends its military operations.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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