WAR IN GAZA AND THE DISCOURSE OF POPULATION TRANSFER

Abstract

The paper explores and analyzes Israel’s war in Gaza and the roots of the discourse of ‘population transfer’ in the Zionist thinking and its current application in Israeli society.
Drawing upon the relevant literature and primary sources and using discourse analysis, the paper examines how the discourse of ‘population transfer’ or ‘ethnic cleansing’ have played a central role in the policy of the Israeli regime towards the Palestinian people since 1948. The study builds on the concept of elimination of the native and the discourse of ‘population transfer’ to get a deeper understanding of the roots of Zionist endeavor to eliminate and erase the indigenous people and society to build a Jewish state in historic Palestine.
The key argument the study puts forth is that the elimination of the native of Palestine has always been central to the Zionist Israeli colonial project and annihilation of the Palestinian society and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians constitute the driving force behind Israel’s current military onslaught in Gaza.
The results of the study have shown that the ongoing Israel’s war in Gaza since October 2023 and its attempts to expel Palestinian population from the area are not accidental; rather, they are the continuation of the conventional Zionist discourse of ethnic cleansing. The specific feature of the current Israeli endeavor to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza is that this policy is fully supported by the United States and other Western countries.