Palestinian Authority defies Trump: Gazans should "flood" Israel rather than other Arab countries
PA/Fatah response to Trump: Our goal is to "flood" Israel with Gazan "refugees"
Flood Israel with Gazans thus "ending the occupation of our land, Palestine, by the Zionist enemy" - top Fatah official
Flooding Israel with "refugees" will bring "comprehensive peace and real coexistence" – Abbas' advisor
"70% of Gazans are refugees," must resettle in "cities and villages from which they were expelled [from Israel] in 1948" – Abbas' advisor
"We await the great day when our Palestinian people will flood towards their villages and cities in occupied Palestine (i.e., Israel) from which it has been expelled for more than 76 years" – top Fatah official
Defying President Trump's plan to "build beautiful, safe communities" in other Arab states, the Palestinian Authority prefers to let Gazan refugees "flood" the entire State of Israel and thereby effectively erase it. Denying Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state in any borders, Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas' advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash suggests a "simple, practical, and just solution"—to let Gazan refugees "return" to the cities and villages from which their "fathers and grandfathers were expelled in 1948":
Al-Habbash: "Over 70% of the residents of the Gaza Strip are Palestinian refugees who arrived in 1948 from historical Palestine (i.e., Israel). A simple, practical, and just solution that will lead to peace is that these Palestinians – and I am among them – will return to our cities and our villages from which our fathers and grandfathers were expelled in 1948... This is how we will truly create a strong basis for a just and comprehensive peace, real coexistence, and true cooperation between all elements of this region, including even the Israelis, and then peace, security, stability, and prosperity will flourish for everyone."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Feb. 5, 2025]
Al-Habbash is repeating this idea. When another interviewer suggested that the refugees in Gaza should go to the West Bank, Al-Habbash rejected this, instead asserting they should move to sovereign Israel that they left "in 1948":
Al-Habbash: "Over 70% of the Gaza Strip residents are refugees. The only place that these refugees could set out towards from the Gaza Strip is -"
Al-Hadath TV host: "The West Bank."
Al-Habbash: "- their cities and villages [in Israel] from which they were expelled in 1948."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Feb. 5, 2025]
In a letter to "Arab political parties" calling to "take action" against US President Trump and his suggestion that Palestinians in Gaza emigrate to other countries, Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki openly stated Fatah's ultimate goal—the destruction of Israel by having Palestinians "flood" it:
Zaki: "American President Trump comes to us with rare insolence... We say to Trump, who wants his legacy to be peace, repeatedly declared that he came to end the wars, and bans migration to the US, why is he demanding [migration] in Palestine? Is it not time to resolve the most complex conflict by ending the occupation of our land, Palestine, by the Zionist enemy? We await the great day when our Palestinian people will flood towards their villages and cities in occupied Palestine (i.e., Israel) from which it has been expelled for more than 76 years to impose UN Resolution Number 194 (see note below - ed.), which determines the right of the Palestinian people to return to its homeland."
[Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki,
Facebook page, Jan. 29, 2025]
Palestinian Media Watch has exposed statements by PA leaders for years documenting that their real goal is to destroy Israel. Over a decade ago, Zaki explained that having Israel come to an end is the goal:
Zaki: "Israel will come to an end. If I say that I want to remove it from existence, this will be great, great, [but] it is hard. This is not a [stated] policy. You can't say it to the world. You can say it to yourself."
[Al-Jazeera TV (Arabic), Sept. 23, 2011]
Al-Habbash's statements are a reaction to a plan for Gaza put forth by US President Donald Trump:
Hamas war on Israel October 2023