The luxury of relocation is a dream Jews never had

(JNS) — For decades, Palestinian activists and their Western enablers have pushed the narrative that resettling Gazans is an unthinkable crime. The irony? Hundreds of thousands of Jews, including my own family, were expelled from Arab lands, and no one lifted a finger to help. There were no global protests, no calls about a “right of return,” no international aid agencies keeping us in permanent refugee limbo. We weren’t given the luxury of relocation; we were forced to rebuild from nothing.

Now, as Gazans are being handed a golden ticket—the opportunity to escape the war zone their own leaders created—the world suddenly finds its moral outrage. They don’t deserve this chance, but Israel, the Middle East and the world deserve this chance at peace. This isn’t nakba 2.0 (Arabic for the “catastrophe” that is the modern-day State of Israel). It is a long-overdue correction.

A recent comparison between Jewish refugees expelled from Arab lands and Gazans today isn’t only inaccurate but obscene. Jewish refugees didn’t wage war on their host countries. They didn’t launch terror attacks, form death squads or strap explosives to their bodies. They didn’t raise generations to glorify suicide bombings and mass murder as a path to paradise.

The same cannot be said for the Gaza Strip. For decades, Palestinians there have been radicalized by Hamas, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and Palestinian leadership. Instead of investing in their future, they built a death cult that thrives on the glorification of terrorism. Their leaders don’t just tolerate violence, they orchestrate it. And their people overwhelmingly support it and suffer because of it.

No Jewish refugees formed terror organizations after being expelled. Meanwhile, Gaza is home to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a network of terrorist factions committed to Israel’s destruction. This isn’t a refugee crisis — it’s a failed society built on hate.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Gazans presents an opportunity that Jewish refugees from Arab countries were never afforded. Between 1948 and the early 1990s, some 850,000 Jews were expelled from nations such as Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. These individuals were not offered resettlement assistance. Instead, they had to rebuild their lives from scratch in Israel and Western countries, often facing significant challenges and discrimination.

In contrast, a notable portion of the Gazan population expresses a desire to emigrate. Before the war, surveys indicated that 33 percent of Gazans wished to leave due to political, security and economic conditions. Given the devastation of the past 16 months, that number has likely surged. This sentiment underscores the potential acceptance of relocation efforts among Gazans.

Unlike Jewish refugees who had no choice but to start over, Gazans are being handed a once-in-a-lifetime chance to escape the failed society that Hamas has built. They are being given the luxury of relocation — something most victims of war and expulsion throughout history could only dream of.

Arab states and UNRWA have deliberately kept Gazans trapped in permanent refugee status. Despite loudly championing the Palestinian cause, Egypt, Jordan and other Arab nations have refused to resettle Gazans, fearing demographic shifts and the weakening of Palestinian claims against Israel.

UNRWA, unlike the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, was not designed to resettle refugees but to maintain them as perpetual political pawns. Instead of integrating Palestinians into stable societies, it ensured they remained stateless, dependent and radicalized, sustaining the “Palestinian struggle” rather than resolving it. The real scandal isn’t that Gazans are now being offered relocation—it’s that they were denied the option for generations.

History is full of displaced people, but few were ever given a second chance. Jews expelled from Arab lands after 1948 were forced to rebuild without international aid, without U.N. agencies sustaining them and without the global community mourning their fate. They integrated, contributed and thrived. Gazans, by contrast, have spent generations trapped in a cycle of self-inflicted suffering, fueled by a leadership that rejected statehood in favor of eternal war. Now, for the first time, a real solution is on the table: relocation. Not exile, not imprisonment—a fresh start. They are being handed an opportunity that no Jewish refugee from Arab lands ever received—a permanent home, built for them, funded by international goodwill.

The world deserves to be rid of Gaza as a terror base. If removing this hotbed of extremism means relocating its people elsewhere, then so be it. Because in the end, peace isn’t built on fantasies. It’s built on removing the threats that make peace impossible.