Forced Displacement amid International Silence
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said on Wednesday that Israel is implementing “the most dangerous phase of its colonial project” in the Gaza Strip, by “publicly beginning the forced displacement of residents outside their homeland and marketing this crime as voluntary migration, amid international silence.”
Lima Bastami, director of the legal department at the Geneva-based monitor, said in a statement that “Israel is proceeding with the mass expulsion of Palestinians after having paved the way for it with 19 months of genocide, with the aim of making departure the only way to survive.”
Bastami added that “the Israeli project in Gaza has reached its peak.” She noted that Israel is seeking to market mass expulsion as voluntary behavior, exploiting its power and the silence of the international community. She emphasized that “forced displacement is a crime under international law, meaning the expulsion of residents from their legitimate areas using force or coercive means without legal justification.”
Bastami pointed out that the residents of Gaza “are living in catastrophic conditions amidst total destruction and a stifling blockade encircling 2.3 million people after widespread displacement and the transformation of most of the territory into buffer zones or destroyed.” She emphasized that “Israel deliberately designed this environment as a pressure tool to push the population to leave Gaza, leaving them no real choice.” Bastami noted that population transfer may be justified in some humanitarian cases, but loses its legitimacy if the party implementing it is the same one responsible for the crisis, as international case law has proven.
She warned that “presenting forced displacement as a voluntary choice distorts the truth and undermines the legal basis of the international system.” Bastami emphasized that “the departure of Gaza’s residents under these conditions cannot be considered voluntary; rather, it constitutes forced displacement under international law.”