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President Trump's idea to move Palestinians out of Gaza has taken on a life of its own in Israel. Israeli officials say they're working on a plan to create a migration authority to help the people of Gaza leave. And surveys suggest the majority of Israelis are open to the idea. NPR's Daniel Estrin reports from Jerusalem.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: The hearing Sunday in Israel's Parliament was titled "The New Middle East: The Plan For Voluntary Emigration From Gaza." Ultranationalist lawmakers discussed how to turn President Trump's recent proposal into reality.
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BEZALEL SMOTRICH: (Speaking Hebrew).
ESTRIN: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, "this has the potential for historic change." He said most of Gaza's 2 million people could be gone within half a year and that Israel is working with the U.S. to find countries to take them in. Chinese and Panamanian diplomats were sitting at the roundtable, chaired by right-wing lawmaker Simcha Rotman.
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SIMCHA ROTMAN: Getting the population out of there because they are in a grave danger when they stay there, and they pose a grave danger to us when they are there - this makes sense.
ESTRIN: He's making a humanitarian case, removing Gazans from the destruction after Israel's war on Hamas, and a security argument that the whole population of Gaza poses a danger to Israelis after the Hamas attack, October 7, 2023. In Gaza, some say they'll never agree to be displaced from their homes. Others say they'd welcome the opportunity to move away for a better life.
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OSHER SHEKALIM: (Speaking Hebrew).
ESTRIN: Lawmaker Osher Shekalim, in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party, said leaving Gaza should not be voluntary. "It's either us or them," he said. "Anyone who defines themselves as Palestinian is saying, I am your enemy. I don't want you here."
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SHEKALIM: (Speaking Hebrew).
ESTRIN: The concept of Palestinian population transfer used to be considered taboo in Israel. The party that advocated it in the 1980s was banned from Parliament as racist. Now Trump and Netanyahu praise the idea. A poll this week from the Israel Democracy Institute found 73% of Jews living in Israel believe that, whether or not it's practical, Trump's plan has started a more relevant discussion of possible solutions for ending the war.
At an outdoor coffee shop in Jerusalem, several Israelis say getting Gazans to leave Gaza would pose problems but might be ideal - 27-year-old medical student Itamar Lavie.
ITAMAR LAVIE: I think this idea is dramatic and crazy, but the situation is also crazy. We cannot keep living like this. I think it's horrible to move population, but maybe, eventually, it will be also better for them because right now they live actually in a ghetto.
ESTRIN: A few tables over is 30-year-old dentist Liza Dryer with her dog.
LIZA DRYER: I would like it to happen, but I'm not sure it's the practical, right solution because then there will be more stories about more lands that we took over, that we occupied, that we were violent towards. So I really feel it will lead to more harsh feelings towards Israel.
ESTRIN: President Trump's idea is to get Gazans away from the rubble and resettle them in neighboring countries to have better lives. Dozens of Arab countries have rejected displacement, calling it ethnic cleansing. There's little objection from prominent opposition politicians in Israel. Centrist lawmaker Alon Schuster says Palestinians should be able to make up their own mind, but he's afraid to evoke dark chapters of Jewish history.
ALON SCHUSTER: Don't want to be in a place where the Jewish state is pushing people from their home if they don't want to.
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YULI EDELSTEIN: (Speaking Hebrew).
ESTRIN: The right-wing lawmakers in the hearing acknowledged they were discussing Gazans leaving Gaza in theory. What they said was important was Trump helping shift the Israeli discourse.
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EDELSTEIN: (Speaking Hebrew).
ESTRIN: As Yuli Edelstein, a member of Netanyahu's party, said, something that was once forbidden to talk about now seems, quote, "super legitimate to discuss." Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Jerusalem.
(SOUNDBITE OF BADBADNOTGOOD'S "TIMID, INTIMIDATING") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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