On Wednesday, South Sudan rejected a report from The Associated Press that said it was in talks with Israel about the possibility of taking in Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, calling the claim “baseless.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have been clear that their ultimate goal for Gaza is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population. But so far, no country has publicly expressed interest in helping facilitate that goal by taking in a large number of Palestinians.
South Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said that the country “firmly refutes recent media reports claiming that the Government of the Republic of South Sudan is engaged in discussion with the State of Israel regarding the resettlement of Palestinian Nationals from Gaza in South Sudan.”
The Foreign Ministry said that the “claims are baseless and do not reflect the official position or policy of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan.”
The AP report cited multiple sources, including Joe Szlavik, the head of a US lobbying group, who said he’s been hired to improve South Sudan’s relations with the US. Szlavik claimed that Israeli officials were planning to visit South Sudan to discuss the possibility of building camps for Palestinians in the country, but he said no date was set.
Several other countries have been reported to be in talks about the possibility of taking in Palestinians from Gaza, including Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Indonesia, and Ethiopia, but none have confirmed their interest in the idea. Any plan to forcibly relocate Palestinians would likely include incentives from the US.
Netanyahu has framed his vision for ethnic cleansing as “voluntary migration,” but the destruction of Gaza and the threat of being killed by the Israeli military or by starvation due to the Israeli blockade make it a forced displacement. In an interview on Tuesday, the Israeli leader said he would “allow” Palestinians in Gaza to leave.
