Israel ‘organised and prepared’ to remove Gaza population if US gives green light, Katz says

Munther Isaac منذر اسحق

@MuntherIsaac

·

Sep 3

Israeli officials casually discuss ethnic cleansing, speaking of Palestinians as a “surplus population” to be removed—as though the only question is where to send them. 

 

This is blatant racism. And the world is not merely watching; it is actively facilitating it. 

 

According to the report from France 24: 

 

“Israel has plans ready to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip but is waiting for the United States to figure out where to take them, the Israeli defence minister said Wednesday. 

 

 "There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration," 

 

The Israeli government "is organised and prepared to get them out – by sea, by air, by every way possible", he said.

Drone photo of Gaza City destruction after Israeli military bombardments taken October 15, 2025. AP

Israel is "organised and prepared" to remove Palestininians from Gaza "by every way possible", Defence Minister Israel Katz told reporters Wednesday, adding that there was no alternative "solution" to crisis. The Israeli government was simply waiting for the US to figure out where to take the displaced Gazans, he said.   

02/09/2026  

By:  FRANCE 24

Israel has plans ready to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip but is waiting for the United States to figure out where to take them, the defence minister said Wednesday.

"There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration," Defence Minister Israel Katz told a conference hosted by Israeli news site Ynet and newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

The Israeli government "is organised and prepared to get them out – by sea, by air, by every way possible", he said. 

The US embassy referred requests for comment to the State Department in Washington.

US President Donald Trump, at the start of his second term, stunned much of the world by calling for all two million Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip. 

Trump spoke of developing the Mediterranean territory, devastated by Israeli bombardment since the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, into a luxury resort destination.

Trump walked back the idea following strong pushback, including from Egypt – the only country other than Israel to border Gaza.

The proposal was also condemned by Palestinians themselves, for whom any effort to force them off their land would recall the "Nakba", or catastrophe – their mass displacement during Israel's creation in 1948.... READ MORE  https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260902-israel-organised-and-prepared-to-remove-gaza-population-if-us-gives-green-light-katz

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"The headline is incredibly misleading. It completely reverses the point I was making. Rather than highlighting my explicit distinction between Zionist organizations and Jewish partners in justice, it collapses that distinction and leaves readers with the false impression that I accused British Jews collectively of complicity in Israel’s crimes. This is precisely the kind of framing that has made speaking about Palestine so difficult for so many years. It is not only manipulative; it fuels the false narrative that criticism of Israel is criticism of Jews." Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac - Jul 23, 2026

 When Headlines Distort the Truth

What The Telegraph Got Wrong About My Response

Munther Isaac

Jul 23, 2026

“Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac is Director of the Bethlehem of Institute for Peace and Justice and co-author of Kairos Palestine II.

I was recently approached by The Telegraph, a newspaper in the United Kingdom, to comment on the Church of England’s recent decision to receive and engage with Kairos Palestine II, among other Palestinian Christian documents. I was also asked to respond to the criticism directed at the Church by the Board of Deputies of British Jews. 

 

READ THE LETTER 

Now notice something important. I clearly distinguished between those promoting Zionism and the many Jewish voices working for justice. In fact, I explicitly called on churches to listen to and amplify those Jewish voices. That distinction was not incidental—it was central to my response.

So what did The Telegraph do with it? It published the following headline: “British Jews complicit in Israel crimes, say Palestinian Christians.”

That is simply not what I said. It is not what Kairos Palestine II says. It is not what Palestinian Christians are saying.

The headline is incredibly misleading. It completely reverses the point I was making. Rather than highlighting my explicit distinction between Zionist organizations and Jewish partners in justice, it collapses that distinction and leaves readers with the false impression that I accused British Jews collectively of complicity in Israel’s crimes.

This is precisely the kind of framing that has made speaking about Palestine so difficult for so many years. It is not only manipulative; it fuels the false narrative that criticism of Israel is criticism of Jews.

Our position has been clear and consistent. The problem is not Jews. The problem is not Judaism. The problem is support for oppression, occupation, apartheid, and now genocide—whether that support comes from Jews, Christians, Muslims, or anyone else.

Likewise, those standing for justice include Jews, Christians, Muslims, and people of no faith. As I said in my response, and as Kairos Palestine II explicitly affirms, we welcome and encourage partnership with Jewish voices committed to truth and justice.

Perhaps most troubling of all, this kind of reporting distracts attention from the real issue. Instead of engaging with the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, or with the overwhelming evidence presented by international legal, human rights, and medical bodies, the conversation is redirected toward a manufactured controversy... READ MORE https://bipj.substack.com/p/when-headlines-distort-the-truth?r=62vmcy&triedRedirect=true

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These are torture camps. There are hundreds of children among them. The world is watching, and doing nothing.

 Munther Isaac منذر اسحق

@MuntherIsaac

These are torture camps. There are hundreds of children among them. The world is watching, and doing nothing.

 

 https://x.com/MuntherIsaac/status/2036328255460876418

 

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B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم

 

@btselem

 

As of March 2026, some 9,446 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons; 4,691 of them are under administrative detention, imprisoned without charge, trial, or the ability to defend themselves. 

 

Even during the illegal and deadly Israeli-American attack on Iran, Israel continues to operate a network of torture camps for Palestinian prisoners from north to south, where they are subjected to systematic abuse, including physical and psychological violence, inhuman conditions, starvation and denial of medical treatment. 

 

84 identified Palestinians, including one minor, have died in Israeli torture camps over the last two years, and there is grave concern that the real number is higher. 

 

This policy persists with the full support of Israel’s political establishment, judicial system, prison authorities and media. The Israel Prison Service and the Minister for National Security have publicly bragged about the harsh conditions imposed on Palestinian prisoners. 

 

These torture camps are part of the planned, extensive assault Israel is waging against Palestinian society, intended to break down and destroy Palestinians as a group. Link to our report “Living Hell” >>  https://www.btselem.org/publications/202601_living_hell

"This is Qais, 14, from Aboud near Ramallah. A 9th grader. Active in his church. A child who should be in school today. Instead, Israeli soldiers kidnapped him from his home this morning. Family traumatized. Pray for his release." Rev. Munther Isaac منذر اسحق

Alison Weir reposted

Munther Isaac منذر اسحق

@MuntherIsaac

This is Qais, 14, from Aboud near Ramallah. A 9th grader. Active in his church. A child who should be in school today. Instead, Israeli soldiers kidnapped him from his home this morning. Family traumatized. Pray for his release.

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"The family I mentioned happens to be Christian. But let no one think this is about Christians or Muslims. This is about Palestinians. All of us. We are all now exposed. All unprotected. All living under a system where the attacker is shielded and the victim is punished..." Rev. Munther Isaac

 Munther Isaac منذر اسحق

@MuntherIsaac

 

Yesterday, Zionist settler thugs attacked the village of Birzeit, near Ramallah. They uprooted trees and deliberately let their flocks loose on Palestinian families’ lands—lands that are not only a source of livelihood, but a source of dignity and rootedness. 

 

When one woman from the village dared to shout at them and confront them, the settlers attacked her. She was attcked and had to be hospitalized and was placed in intensive care.  Thank God, today her condition is stable. 

 

When her son and other relatives saw what was happening, they did what any human being would do: they rushed to defend her and pushed the attackers away. 

 

Now here is the real question: What did the Israeli army do? They did not arrest the settlers. 

 

They did not protect the family. They did not stop the attack. Instead, they beat the Palestinians and arrested the son who defended his mother. As of now, we have no news about him. 

 

Let us call this what it is: Zionist terrorism. 

 

The problem is not only the settlers. The problem is the system that empowers them. 

 

The problem is the immunity they enjoy. The problem is the protection they receive from the army. The problem is the ideology that sees Palestinians as disposable, as obstacles, as people without rights. This is not an isolated incident. This is happening everywhere in the West Bank. Day after day. Village after village. Family after family. Farmers, shepherds, children, elderly people—all are victims of this organized lawlessness. 

 

The family I mentioned happens to be Christian. But let no one think this is about Christians or Muslims. This is about Palestinians. All of us. We are all now exposed. All unprotected. All living under a system where the attacker is shielded and the victim is punished. 

 

This is injustice in its naked, brutal form. A system that protects violent settlers and arrests a son for defending his mother is not a system of law. It is a system of oppression and apartheid. 

 

Lord, have mercy.

 https://x.com/MuntherIsaac/status/2015482384108658738

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Christmas is not a Western story – it is a Palestinian one: Christmas is a story of empire, injustice and the vulnerability of ordinary people caught in its path.... "This Christmas, our invitation to the global church — and to Western Christians in particular — is to remember where the story began. To remember that Bethlehem is not a myth but a place where people still live. If the Christian world is to honour the meaning of Christmas, it must turn its gaze to Bethlehem — not the imagined one, but the real one, a town whose people today still cry out for justice, dignity and peace." Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac

By Rev Dr Munther Isaac

A Palestinian pastor and theologian.

Published On 24 Dec 2025

 

The sun rises over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on December 24, 2025 [Yosri Aljamal/Reuters]

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Every December, much of the Christian world enters a familiar cycle of celebration: carols, lights, decorated trees, consumer frenzy and the warm imagery of a snowy night. In the United States and Europe, public discourse often speaks of “Western Christian values”, or even the vague notion of “Judeo-Christian civilisation”. These phrases have become so common that many assume, almost automatically, that Christianity is inherently a Western religion — an expression of European culture, history and identity.

It is not.

Christianity is, and has always been, a West Asian / Middle Eastern religion. Its geography, culture, worldview and founding stories are rooted in this land — among peoples, languages and social structures that look far more like those in today’s Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan than anything imagined in Europe. Even Judaism, invoked in the term “Judeo-Christian values”, is itself a thoroughly Middle Eastern phenomenon. The West received Christianity — it certainly did not give birth to it.

And perhaps nothing reveals the distance between Christianity’s origins and its contemporary Western expression more starkly than Christmas — the birth story of a Palestinian Jew, a child of this land who was born long before modern borders and identities emerged.

What the West made of Christmas

In the West, Christmas is a cultural marketplace. It is commercialised, romanticised and wrapped in layers of sentimentality. Lavish gift-giving overshadows any concern for the poor. The season has become a performance of abundance, nostalgia, and consumerism — a holiday stripped of its theological and moral core.

Even the familiar lines of the Christmas song Silent Night obscure the true nature of the story: Jesus was not born into serenity but into upheaval.

He was born under military occupation, to a family displaced by an imperial decree, in a region living under the shadow of violence. The holy family were forced to flee as refugees because the infants of Bethlehem, according to the Gospel narrative, were massacred by a fearful tyrant determined to preserve his reign. Sound familiar?

Indeed, Christmas is a story of empire, injustice and the vulnerability of ordinary people caught in its path.

Bethlehem: Imagination vs reality

For many in the West, Bethlehem – the birthplace of Jesus – is a place of imagination — a postcard from antiquity, frozen in time. The “little town” is remembered as a quaint village from scripture rather than a living, breathing city with actual people, with a distinct history and culture.

Bethlehem today is surrounded by walls and checkpoints built by an occupier. Its residents live under a system of apartheid and fragmentation. Many feel cut off, not only from Jerusalem – which the occupier does not allow them to visit – but also from the global Christian imagination that venerates Bethlehem’s past while often ignoring its present.

This sentiment also explains why so many in the West, while celebrating Christmas, care little about the Christians of Bethlehem. Even worse, many embrace theologies and political attitudes that erase or dismiss our presence entirely in order to support Israel, the empire of today.

In these frameworks, ancient Bethlehem is cherished as a sacred idea, but modern Bethlehem — with its Palestinian Christians suffering and struggling to survive — is an inconvenient reality that needs to be ignored.

This disconnect matters. When Western Christians forget that Bethlehem is real, they disconnect from their spiritual roots. And when they forget that Bethlehem is real, they also forget that the story of Christmas is real.

They forget that it unfolded among a people who lived under empire, who faced displacement, who longed for justice, and who believed that God was not distant but among them.

What Christmas means for Bethlehem

So what does Christmas look like when told from the perspective of the people who still live where it all began — the Palestinian Christians? What meaning does it hold for a tiny community that has preserved its faith for two millennia?

At its heart, Christmas is the story of the solidarity of God.

It is the story of God who does not rule from afar, but is present among the people and takes the side of those on the margins. The incarnation — the belief that God took on flesh — is not a metaphysical abstraction. It is a radical statement about where God chooses to dwell: in vulnerability, in poverty, among the occupied, among those with no power except the power of hope.

In the Bethlehem story, God identifies not with emperors but with those suffering under empire — its victims. God comes not as a warrior but as an infant. God is present not in a palace but in a manger. This is divine solidarity in its most striking form: God joins the most vulnerable part of humanity.

Christmas, then, is the proclamation of a God who confronts the logic of empire.

For Palestinians today, this is not merely theology — it is lived experience. When we read the Christmas story, we recognise our own world: the census that forced Mary and Joseph to travel resembles the permits, checkpoints and bureaucratic controls that shape our daily lives today. The holy family’s flight resonates with the millions of refugees who have fled wars across our region. Herod’s violence echoes in the violence we see around us.

Christmas is a Palestinian story par excellence.

A message to the world

Bethlehem celebrates Christmas for the first time after two years without public festivities. It was painful yet necessary for us to cancel our celebrations; we had no choice.

A genocide was unfolding in Gaza, and as people who still live in the homeland of Christmas, we could not pretend otherwise. We could not celebrate the birth of Jesus while children his age were being pulled dead from the rubble.

Celebrating this season does not mean the war, the genocide, or the structures of apartheid have ended. People are still being killed. We are still besieged.

Instead, our celebration is an act of resilience — a declaration that we are still here, that Bethlehem remains the capital of Christmas, and that the story this town tells must continue.

At a time when Western political discourse increasingly weaponises Christianity as a marker of cultural identity — often excluding the very people among whom Christianity was born — it is vital to return to the roots of this story.

This Christmas, our invitation to the global church — and to Western Christians in particular — is to remember where the story began. To remember that Bethlehem is not a myth but a place where people still live. If the Christian world is to honour the meaning of Christmas, it must turn its gaze to Bethlehem — not the imagined one, but the real one, a town whose people today still cry out for justice, dignity and peace.

To remember Bethlehem is to remember that God stands with the oppressed — and that the followers of Jesus are called to do the same.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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• 
  Rev Dr Munther Isaac

  A Palestinian pastor and theologian

  Rev Dr Munther Isaac is a Palestinian pastor and theologian. He pastors Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ramallah and is director of the Bethlehem Institute for Peace and Justice.

   

  https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/12/24/christmas-is-not-a-western-story-it-is-a-palestinian-one 

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