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The Logistics of Transfer |
July 3, 2002 |
Let us pause for a moment to consider the big picture. The implementation of transfer will only work well if the majority of those to be resettled do so voluntarily. Forcibly expelling millions of people is not only cruel (though it may be necessary), but also extremely difficult to carry out, even for Israel's very capable army. However, not many people will shed tears if the Arabs move out from the Jewish state of their own volition. Therefore, Israel's major goal with the Arabs, both within Yesha and Israel, should be to encourage voluntary resettlement. It is essential to make the Arabs understand that they do not have a future in western Eretz Yisrael. As she promotes arguments in favor of transfer in the political arena, Israel must work to let the Palestinian Arabs know that relocation is in their own best interest, and her policies should be conducted with the goal of making the Arabs want to leave. Even in the current situation, in which the Palestinian Arabs harbor strong hopes for statehood in Yesha, a poll conducted among them by Bir Zeit University on September 7 and 8, 2001 showed that, given the chance, 21.9% of the Arabs would emigrate. That means that over 600,000 Arabs are ready to abandon Yesha in search of better opportunities. Undoubtedly, if Israel were to make clear that she intends to carry out the transfer option, and if she were to provide suitable incentives for the Arabs to resettle, the number of people wanting to leave will considerably increase. Simply providing a sum of money that would enable a family to move to a neighboring Arab country would lead people to do so in droves. Additional incentive to "act now" (e.g. more compensation given for moving sooner, rather than later) would also help to speed things up. And if all this was actually accompanied by a coordinated international relief effort, including the creation of the Palestinian state in Iraq or Saudi Arabia, the numbers would only increase, and significantly. Opponents of the idea will certainly argue that it is unjust to impose a decision on people about where they should live. The root of the problem, though, is that the Palestinians have already been forced into miserable refugee camps for decades, unable to build any sort of normal lives for themselves. Because of this, it is only natural that they would pine for living in a better place and a fondly remember "better times gone by." However, considering the fact that over 40% of Israeli Arabs, 50% of Yesha Arabs and over half of the Palestinian refugees are under the age of 16, this means that significantly less than half of all Palestinians were around before 1967, and obviously far fewer before 1948. Their "attachment" to a land, which most of them have never even seen, derives largely from their desire for some kind of better life than the one they have now, coupled with incessant propaganda by their leaders, which has done much to inflame their sense of having been wronged, and nothing at all to improve their lot. Given a true opportunity to leave the refugee camps and start building lives for themselves, it is safe to assume that many Palestinian Arabs would jump at the chance. One other major factor that keeps the Arabs of Yesha tied to Eretz Yisrael is the fact that much of their livelihood comes from working in Israel. Yehezkel Bin-Nun wrote on March 21 in the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon that even currently, at a time when Israel has restricted the entry of Yesha Arabs into Israel, significant numbers are still employed in Israel. Bin-Nun writes, In all, it is estimated that Israelis employ 150,000 Yesha Arabs every day. Terje Larsen, the former UN coordinator for the Palestinian Authority, says that each Arab worker supports approximately 10 Arabs. That means that in all, Israeli companies support 1.5 million Yesha Arabs, or half the total amount. Similarly, Deputy Minister of Defense Ephraim Sneh (Labor) estimates that 40 percent of the PA GNP is derived from Arabs working in "Green Line" Israel. Clearly, the ability of the Arabs to work in Israel is a key reason that they choose to remain in Yesha. Bin-Nun writes that since Israel has reduced the number of work permits "it is estimated that some 100,000 Arabs have left PA-controlled areas in the past year and emigrated to foreign countries" (let us also not forget the over 600,000 Arabs who want to emigrate). Thus, in order to encourage this emigration, part of the policy of transfer must include stopping the issuance of work permits to Yesha Arabs. Instead of work permits, Israel can issue them resettlement compensation packages, and send them on their way. Since they aren't citizens, there is no reason Israel should feel obligated to provide employment for them. As old work permits expire, fewer and fewer Yesha Arabs will work in Israel. If these policies are consistently implemented and enforced, the Arabs will no longer be able to count on employment in Israel, and the number of those wanting to emigrate will substantially increase.
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