The two countries, which flank Israel on opposite sides and share borders with Gaza and the occupied West Bank, respectively, have replied with a staunch refusal. Jordan already has a large Palestinian population.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi made his toughest remarks yet on Wednesday, saying the current war was not just aimed at fighting Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, “but also an attempt to push the civilian inhabitants to … migrate to Egypt.” He warned this could wreck peace in the region.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II gave a similar message a day earlier, saying, “No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt.”
Their refusal is rooted in fear that Israel wants to force a permanent expulsion of Palestinians into their countries and nullify Palestinian demands for statehood. El-Sissi also said a mass exodus would risk bringing militants into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, from where they might launch attacks on Israel, endangering the two countries’ 40-year-old peace treaty.
Bullying Palestinians from their land in the West Bank has been going on for decades, and is getting a big push in the last week as the world is focused on Gaza and jewish extremists feel emboldened. Zionists are far more interested in the fertile West Bank (and Jerusalem) than the rubble in the Gaza Strip.
And it won’t be pretty but two million refugees could be spread out, there are a lot of extremely wealthy countries that always say they support the Palestinian People. But apparently only as long as they remain in Palestine…