“Humanitarian city” Israel’s defense minister says a concentration camp will be built on the ruins of Rafah. It will be a form of ethnic cleansing where Palestinians are forced into, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Guardian. Olmert also said Israel had already committed war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, so building the camp could make things worse. Asked about the plan by Israel Katz last week, he said: “It’s a concentration camp. So I’m sorry.” Once inside, Palestinians will not be allowed to leave unless they go to another country, Katz said.
So Katz has already ordered the army to start drawing up operational plans to build a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of southern Gaza, which will initially house six million people and eventually the entire Palestinian population.
“If Palestinians are being deported to the new ‘humanitarian city,’ you could say it’s part of an ethnic cleansing. That hasn’t happened yet,” Olmert said, adding that this would be the inevitable explanation for any attempt to build a camp for millions of people.
Olmert did not consider Israel’s current operation to be ethnic cleansing. Because, he said, the evacuation of civilians to protect them from war was legal under international law. Moreover, Palestinians have returned to areas where military operations have ended. The “humanitarian city” project has the support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli media reported that Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the area Katz envisions for the camp has become an obstacle in negotiations for a ceasefire agreement.
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