Israel’s Evacuation Order Is a Prelude to Disaster

The Israeli government is demanding that Palestinian civilians evacuate Gaza city. The U.N. and humanitarian agencies say that this is an impossible demand, and some say it is also unlawful:

The Norwegian Refugee Council, an international aid agency operating in the territory, said the evacuation order, which came without clear guarantees of safety and return, “would amount to the war crime of forcible transfer.”

Nancy Okail, president of the Washington-based Center for International Policy, described the evacuation order as not only impossible, but “a license to kill. Because those who remain behind, it would be sort of a warranty to kill those who stay.”

There is no way that a million people can safely evacuate their homes under current conditions. As Jan Egeland of the NRC said in the group’s statement, “My colleagues inside Gaza confirm that there are countless people in the northern parts who have no means to safely relocate under the constant barrage of fire.” Even if they managed to do this, where would they go and how would they survive once they left? There is nowhere for these people to go. The displacement of more than a million people in the middle of what is already a dire humanitarian crisis would be a massive crime in itself. That is to say nothing of the collective punishment already being meted out to the entire population by cutting off access to supplies of food, water, fuel, and power.

Read the rest of the article at Eunomia

Daniel Larison is a contributing editor for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.