Israeli FM Seeks Legal Advice on Expelling Arabs

Legal Brief Proposes 'Territorial Exchange' Strategy

His pet plan virtually from the moment he burst onto the political scene in Israel, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is still looking for a way to get rid of the nation’s Arab minority.

His determination to see the plan through to the end has gone so far that he has been quietly courting legal advice about how Israel might expel it’s ethnic minority.

The legal brief that came of the solicitation, penned by Ehud Keinan, argues that the only feasible route would be “territorial exchange” with Palestine, where Israel would carefully “exchange” land that Arabs live on with the future Palestinian state, and be able to trade the Arabs along with the land.

Keinan warns the plan would require Palestinian cooperation to work, while other legal experts suggest even that is a shaky prospect, as international law simply doesn’t allow the mass expulsion of citizens in such a manner. Nevertheless, the plan seems to remain a top priority for Lieberman.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.