Gazans arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from Rafah on May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israeli Defense Ministry working to facilitate migration of 100 Gazans to the world’s most populous Muslim country, arranging jobs in the construction industry.
By World Israel News Staff
A group of 100 Palestinian Arabs living in the Gaza Strip is slated to immigrate to Indonesia in the coming days, as part of a new program launched by Israel’s Defense Ministry to help facilitate mass migration from Gaza to third-party countries.
According to a report by the Israeli Channel 12 TV network on Wednesday, the prospective émigrés are working in conjunction with the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), under the authority of COGAT chief Major-General Ghassan Alian.
The migrants will not be barred from returning to the Gaza Strip should they choose to leave Indonesia, but COGAT is working to help the emigrants permanently settle abroad, and has found work for them in Indonesia, primarily as construction workers.
The migration is the first attempt by COGAT to help facilitate mass migration to Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.
As part of a larger effort by the Defense Ministry to help Gazans settle abroad, the COGAT program seeks to facilitate the migration of thousands of Gazans to Indonesia.
It is unclear at this point, however, what limits, if any, the Indonesian government is placing on Palestinian immigration.
In the past, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said his country would take a limited number of injured Gazans for a temporary stay, while shying away from committing to accepting large numbers of migrants.
“We are taking steps to channel assistance to Palestine,” he said last June. “Indonesia has announced its readiness to evacuate 1,000 patients for medical treatment in Indonesia. They will be returned to Gaza after recovering, once the situation there stabilizes.”
Earlier this week, Channel 12 reported that 1,000 Gazans permanently emigrated from the coastal enclave in the first three weeks in March, with 600 more slated to leave in the coming days.
They join 35,000 others who are estimated to have settled abroad since October 7, 2023.
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