Does Israel want to execute a second nakba, expelling Palestinians from Gaza in a repeat of the first nakba at Israel’s founding?

Already on October 7, Likud lawmaker Ariel Kallner tweeted: “Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48.” More recently, Minister of Agriculture Avi Dichter explained on Israeli TV: “We are now actually rolling with [the] Nakba of Gaza.” Another lawmaker, Ram Ben Barak, who sits on the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, stated flatly: “Let’s distribute them [Palestinians] all over the world. There are 2.5 million Gazans . . . each country takes 25,000.”

There’s even a plan put together by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence. The policy paper, entitled “Alternatives for a Political Directive for the Civilian Population in Gaza” and dated October 13, 2023, advocates for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza. Granted: the Intelligence Ministry is not a powerful one. Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet is overseeing the assault on Gaza. And Israel’s most far-right minsters (namely, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir) are excluded from the war cabinet.