Nesrine Malik: Israeli ministers describe Gaza expulsions in plain language

Israel’s security minister outlines Gaza expulsion plans, ministers describe coercion as policy rather than rhetoric, international responses still rely on process language

Itamar Ben-Gvir appeared at Jerusalem’s Mahaneh Yehudah Market on 4 September and, according to The Guardian, described a scheme to remove all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Around the same time, he posted and later deleted an AI-generated video showing Palestinian men entering a conveyor-belt system into detention and emerging emaciated and tearful. Ben-Gvir is not a marginal commentator: he holds Israel’s national security portfolio, and has framed his agenda in terms of delivery—“we promised, we delivered,” the paper reports.

The same article places Ben-Gvir’s comments alongside statements from Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, who said Israel was “organised and prepared” to expel Palestinians from Gaza “by every way possible”. Katz has also approved what The Guardian calls the biggest settlement expansion in the West Bank in decades, justifying it as a way to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. Policies that were once described as red lines—formalising outpost settlement farms, or treating reconstruction as a threat—are presented as administrative decisions. A body described as the Board of Peace promises Gaza will be “redeveloped for the benefit” of its people, while figures quoted in the piece argue that Israel has no interest in Gaza being rebuilt at all.

Nesrine Malik’s argument is that the world has been given unusually direct descriptions of intended outcomes, yet external actors still respond as if the issue were primarily one of tone, miscommunication, or temporary excess. The piece cites Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel’s national security council, saying Israel’s acceptance of Donald Trump’s 15-point plan was a temporary military tactic rather than a long-term commitment. It also notes the political rehabilitation of Moshe Feiglin—previously described as a “far-right outcast”—now close to a cabinet position via an alliance with finance minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist party. Feiglin is quoted advocating coercion to force departures, including shutting off water pipes.

The institutions that would normally impose costs for such declarations appear to operate slowly, indirectly, or not at all. The article points to Ben-Gvir reopening the underground Rakefet prison, closed in the 1980s for being inhumane, and to pushes for a death penalty for Palestinians convicted of terror attacks—celebrated, it says, with a noose-themed cake. It also notes that torture and sexual abuse in Israeli prisons are widely documented, and that Israel is on the UN’s sexual violence in war zones blacklist. In that setting, international language about investigations, frameworks, and future negotiations can function as a holding pattern while executive offices continue to implement decisions that are hard to reverse.

Ben-Gvir’s deleted video, Katz’s expulsion statement, and a settlement approval are concrete acts that do not require interpreting intentions from hints. They are public, attributable, and on the record.