<article data-history-node-id="420775" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israel-has-always-wanted-expel-palestinians-now-its-saying-quiet-part" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/israel-has-always-wanted-expel-palestinians-now-its-saying-quiet-part" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Israel has always wanted to expel Palestinians. Now it's saying the quiet part out loud</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel" target="_blank">Israel</a>'s plans to remove Palestinians from Gaza, ominously called "<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/24/middleeast/israel-approves-proposal-to-facilitate-emigration-of-palestinians-from-gaza-intl/index.html" target="_blank">voluntary transfer</a>", may seem like a shocking new idea. But it is as old as the Jewish state itself.</p> <p>Insecurity about the country's origins has been baked in since 1948. In recent years, Israel's Defence Ministry has literally dispatched teams into Israeli archives to remove vast numbers of documents that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2019-07-05/ty-article-magazine/.premium/how-israel-systematically-hides-evidence-of-1948-expulsion-of-arabs/0000017f-f303-d487-abff-f3ff69de0000" target="_blank">prove the reality</a>&nbsp;of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/nakba" target="_blank">Nakba</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p>Was this embarrassment, shame, hubris - or all of the above?</p> <p>These are the actions of a guilty nation that can't face its own past, though many Israelis today are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.972mag.com/second-nakba-government-gaza/" target="_blank">increasingly proud</a>&nbsp;of the ethnic cleansing that took place in the late 1940s - and are determined to repeat it on steroids.</p> <p>From the late 1960s, Israeli political and military leaders spoke in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-12-05/ty-article-magazine/.premium/we-give-them-48-hours-to-leave-israels-plans-to-transfer-gazans-go-back-60-years/00000193-9716-dac2-add3-b75e12d30000" target="_blank">strikingly similar</a>&nbsp;terms to Israel's far right and mainstream in the 2020s; removing Palestinians from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine" target="_blank">Palestine</a>&nbsp;was the overriding goal.&nbsp;</p> <h3>Read more:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-has-always-wanted-expel-palestinians-now-its-saying-quiet-part-out-loud">Israel has always wanted to expel Palestinians. Now it's saying the quiet part out loud</a></h3> <figure role="group" class="media-block"> <div class="group-inner"> <div alt="Palestinians transport their belongings as they flee Gaza City's eastern neighbourhood of Shujaiya following an evacuation order issued by the Israeli military on 3 April 2025 (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)" data-embed-button="file_browser" data-entity-embed-display="image:image" data-entity-embed-display-settings="{" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a0eb80c8-e164-4ea7-ad97-ea2da7d3e310" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"> <img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/images-story/000_38YM9CP%281%29.jpg" width="1920" height="1080" alt="Palestinians transport their belongings as they flee Gaza City's eastern neighbourhood of Shujaiya following an evacuation order issued by the Israeli military on 3 April 2025 (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)" typeof="foaf:Image" fetchpriority="high"> </div> <figcaption>Palestinians transport their belongings as they flee Gaza City's eastern neighbourhood of Shujaiya following an evacuation order issued by the Israeli military on 3 April 2025 (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)</figcaption> </div> </figure> <p><span style="background: url(&quot;https://www.middleeasteye.net/modules/contrib/ckeditor/vendor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png&quot;) rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.5); top: -15px; left: 0px;"><img height="15" role="presentation" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==" title="Click and drag to move" width="15" loading="lazy"></span></p> </div> </div> </article>