Congress Must Recognize the Nakba as Israel Threatens Mass Expulsion from Gaza
IMEU Policy Project Memo #19
BACKGROUND
When President Donald Trump proposed the ethnic cleansing of more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza as part of a larger American occupation of the territory, he was advocating for a war crime. While the majority of Americans rightfully opposed this proposal, it received significant support from members of the Israeli government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who saw it as an opportunity to launch a new phase of the Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in English and refers to Israel’s dispossession of Palestinians from their homes in 1948 and subsequently.
This week, Rep. Rashida Tlaib is preparing to re-introduce a resolution recognizing the Palestinian Nakba and the rights of Palestinian refugees.
💡 POLICY ASK: IMEU Policy Project strongly urges Representatives to cosponsor this resolution.
As Israel prepares to fulfill President Trump’s vision of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza and its own plans for ethnic cleansing, it’s more important than ever for members of Congress to strongly oppose the further dispossession of the Palestinian people.
Now as Israel prepares to “flatten” Gaza and to potentially ethnically cleanse Palestinians from there, it’s more important than ever to understand how this plan fits into Israel’s historic displacement of Palestinians.
TOPLINES
Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s resolution is needed to push back against the plans of Israel and the Trump administration to potentially drive more than 2 million Palestinians out of Gaza.
Donald Trump’s Gaza ethnic cleansing plan is a continuation of Israel’s broader plan to expel as many Palestinians from their homeland as possible.
The 1948 Nakba was carried out by Zionist militias and the Israeli military and displaced more than 750,000 Palestinians–the vast majority of Palestinians who lived in areas that became the State of Israel–from their homeland.
The Nakba is ongoing: decades of Israeli policies–such as the building of settlements and destruction of Palestinian homes–continue to displace Palestinians from their homes today.
Details
Why Representatives Should Support this Resolution
Americans oppose President Donald Trump’s ethnic cleansing proposal.
According to a Data for Progress poll published in February 2025, 64% of Americans oppose President Trump’s proposal to push Palestinians out of Gaza and for the US to take control of it. Among Democrats, opposition to the proposal rises to 78%.
The forcible transfer of Palestinians from Gaza would be a violation of international humanitarian law and a crime against humanity, and the US would be complicit.
President Trump’s proposal and Israel’s long-standing plans to remove Palestinians from Gaza would violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits occupying powers like Israel from the forcible transfer of groups of people. Whether or not President Trump’s proposal is executed, US-supplied weapons would likely be used to commit these crimes–violating US laws such as the Arms Export Control Act. Congress must send a strong message against US complicity in these crimes.
The Nakba is a foundational crime of Israel–it’s about much more than President Trump’s proposal.
The resolution addresses the current threat of forcible transfer as part of Israel’s long history of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland. Ethnic cleansing is fundamental to the founding of Israel, and Israel’s genocide in Gaza is one of many ways it has continued its violence against Palestinians. The resolution encourages the fostering of the memory of the Nakba and urges the US to prevent its advancement.
Gaza and a “Second Nakba”
While President Donald Trump’s ethnic cleansing proposal marked the first time the US supported forcible displacement of Palestinians from their homeland during Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, it fits into well-documented Israeli expulsion plans.
As of May 2025, Israel has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians since the beginning of its genocide in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. This figure is likely a severe undercount due in large part to Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system. The figure also does not count the thousands of Palestinians who have been indirectly killed by Israel through starvation and disease, and the thousands missing and presumed dead.
As of May 1, Israel forcibly displaced 420,000 Palestinians since it broke the ceasefire on March 18, 2025. Before the ceasefire, as many as 1.9 million Palestinians–90% of Gaza’s population–had been forcibly displaced by the Israeli military with the approval of the Biden administration.
As of May 6, 2025, nearly 70% of Gaza is under an evacuation order or is a designated “no-go zone” preventing Palestinians from returning to what little if anything is left of their homes.
Israel has planned to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza ever since the beginning of its genocide there. Just days after Israel began bombing Gaza, the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence recommended the forcible transfer of Palestinians from Gaza into the Egyptian desert. Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have been clamoring for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza since the beginning.
What is the Nakba?
The Nakba, meaning “catastrophe” in English, refers to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and its violent dispossession of Palestinian homes and lands before, during, and after the establishment of the state of Israel.
The United Nations partition plan recommendation for Palestine, which allocated 55% of historic Palestine to a Jewish state and just 42% to an Arab state, despite the fact that Palestinians made up two-thirds of the population and the Zionist movement owned less than 7% of the land, set the stage for the Nakba.
While the Nakba is commemorated as beginning on May 15th, 1948, Zionist militias began to terrorize Palestinians as early as December 1947 following the United Nations’ approval of the partition plan recommendation for Palestine. By May 1948, up to 300,000 Palestinians were made refugees by these attacks.
Israel adopted Plan Dalet in March 1948. This plan was a blueprint for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland–it specified which Palestinian cities, towns, and villages would be targeted and gave instructions on how to destroy them and drive Palestinians away.
Zionist militias and the Israeli military committed horrifying massacres geared toward forcing Palestinians to leave their homes. On April 9, 1948, the Zionist militias Irgun and Stern Gang killed more than 100 Palestinians in the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin. This massacre triggered a mass flight of Palestinians from their homes. This was one of many massacres that provoked the mass expulsion of Palestinians.
By 1949, Israel seized 78% of historic Palestine–23% more than what had been allocated to the Jewish state under the UN plan–and destroyed or depopulated more than 400 Palestinian villages, towns, and cities. Of the approximately 910,000 Palestinians who had previously lived in what became Israel, only approximately 160,000 remained.
The Nakba Continues
The Nakba did not stop in 1949–Israel continues to displace Palestinians through apartheid policies and the theft of Palestinian land
More than 700,000 Israeli settlers live in illegal settlements in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since the June 1967 war. These settlements are illegal under international law and further the Nakba by fragmenting Palestinian land and cutting Palestinians off from critical resources such as water and farmland.
Israeli settlers in the West Bank frequently attack Palestinian villages while destroying their homes and other property for the sake of the further seizure of Palestinian land. The Israeli military protects these settlers as they carry out this violence, often threatening and arresting Palestinians who try to protect themselves while shielding settlers.
Leading international human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and Israeli human rights organizations such as B’Tselem, have found that Israel practices a system of apartheid that subjects Palestinians to a different set of laws with inferior rights than Jewish Israelis. These laws govern everything from housing and land ownership to family reunification within Israel’s pre-1967 borders. In the occupied territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, Palestinians live under military rule.
Israel makes it nearly impossible for Palestinians in the West Bank to receive permits to build structures and routinely demolishes structures that have not received permits. Israel exercises direct control over 60% of the West Bank and essentially prohibits construction by Palestinians in about 70% of that land.
In Their Own Words
As Israel has continued its genocide in Gaza, Israeli ministers have made clear that the purpose of the carnage and complete destruction is to facilitate this “second Nakba.” Below are some of their own words proclaiming this goal:
Avi Dichter, Israeli Agriculture Minister, said in a November 2023 interview: “We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba…Gaza Nakba 2023. That’s how it’ll end.”
Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli Finance Minister, in remarks to a settlements conference in May 2025: “[Palestinians] will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir spoke approvingly of President Trump’s ethnic cleansing proposal: “Encouraging immigration is the only thing that will bring a solution of rest and tranquility to the State of Israel and to the residents of Gaza. I call on the Arab world to reach out to the residents of Gaza, let them immigrate”
Idit Silman, Israeli Environmental Protection Minister, said in a March 2025 interview: "[The] only solution for the Gaza Strip is to empty it of Gazans…God has sent us the U.S. administration, and it is clearly telling us – it's time to inherit the land."
Photo: Government Press Office (Israel), CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons