Maybe you were waiting for the alarm bells to ring, or for the Israeli army spokesperson to issue an official announcement. But the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, long referred to in Israeli parlance as “transfer,” is already underway. Not in some distant future. Right now.
It’s not exactly happening before Israeli eyes — it’s always possible to look away — but the echoes are reaching Israeli homes. The thundering blasts from Gaza heard across the country are personal messages, like those the army used to send Gazans in a previous era of cruelty: “Your home is about to be bombed. Leave immediately.” This is the updated version of the message, addressed not to the people of Gaza, but to Israeli citizens: “The transfer is underway. It is progressing. And it cannot be undone.”
Of course, the transfer didn’t begin just now, and in the horrific chaos of recent months, it’s hard to fully grasp the scale and meaning of what’s unfolding. It’s also not proceeding exactly as its initiators wished. But that is precisely the danger: when a process like this stalls, the likely response is escalation, and a still more dreadful result. ….more
