Since the start of the Gaza bombardment and as it reached terrifying proportions, I wondered why Palestinian women and children weren’t being evacuated.

After all, there is an international refugee convention that 149 countries have signed (including Egypt and Israel) which provides a framework for refugee status and outlines the responsibilities of signatory countries: The UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol*. It was under this convention that EU countries recently gave 6.74 million Ukranian refugees temporary citizenship upon Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In terms of refuge, Israel, while a signatory, is out. It’s understandable that they might not have wanted to take in Gazan refugees, no matter how temporary, in the immediate aftermath of October 7. But what about Egypt, who is a signatory to the convention, or any other number of surrounding Arab countries claiming solidarity with Palestinians? 

The Gazan Refugee topic seems to fall into the “We Don’t Talk About That” bucket. That’s where people store all the facts that are inconvenient to the “Israel Bad” narrative. 

Like the public silence about Egypt’s wall between itself and Gaza or its role in the blockade, the silence about refugee status for Gazans makes it seem like Israel is boxing Gazans in and then killing them. It’s a little embarrassing that people have heard something like this and gone: yup, makes sense.

Let’s also be clear: Egypt does allow some Gazan refugees to enter— so long as they can pay the $10,000 per person broker fee.

So far as I can tell, there are two main reasons Egypt et al give for not accepting refugees from Gaza:

1. “Gazans need to stay so they don’t lose their land.” According to neighboring countries, accepting Gazan refugees would empty Gaza, making it easy for Israel to steal. Officials from Egypt suggested it would be the Nakba all over again. I want to point out that in order for Gazans to “lose land” they have to be alive. Can the international community really not find a way to protect Gazan refugees and their land? 
2. Surrounding countries worry that accepting Palestinian refugees would also import terrorism. Egypt, for example, worries accepting refugees would inadvertently bring in Hamas or other Palestinian militants onto its soil. Egypt’s military fought for years against Islamic militants — the Muslim Brotherhood from which Hamas was formed even briefly led the government. In other words, surrounding countries won’t take in Palestinian refugees trapped in a devastating war that Hamas (who is both the government in Gaza and a terrorist organization — multi-talented!) launched because they worry about hosting… terrorists. 

In light of these excuses, Gazan refugee status was never going to be a solution to reducing civilian casualties. Officials aren’t talking about it because they’d have to admit how callous their reasons are for not accepting Gazan refugees, and they’d have to admit that Israel isn’t using terrorism as an excuse to kill Palestinians because it’s an issue with which every other country in the region is deeply concerned. 

What’s worse is that leadership know any war in the area will likely lead to many civilian casualties, especially given the fact that Hamas built no bomb shelters and won’t let non-militants or non-hostages shelter in its underground tunnels.

So what do you do if you are attacked by a terrorist government whose civilians have no safe shelters and that won’t be accepted as legal refugees by the international community? 

I don’t know. I do know the reasons being given for not saving ordinary Gazans all ring a bit hollow because they are reasons that put ideas and power before people’s lives.

A reminder: Deligitimizing Jewish or Palestinian connections to the homeland is a bad look. Peace is the right look. Let’s focus on that.

* 149 UN Member States are currently signatory to the Refugee Convention, its 1967 Protocol or both, while 44 UN Members are not. In the Middle East region, only Iran, Israel, Egypt and Yemen are party to the Convention, while states such as Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan and most States in the Gulf region are non-signatories

** https://www.unhcr.org/us/about-unhcr/overview/1951-refugee-convention

*** https://www.npr.org/2023/12/12/1218388766/egypt-israel-gaza-palestinians-hamas