Transfer (doublespeak)

Transer is a term increasingly being used in the context of Israeli proposals for a mass expulsion of Palestinians. In the current wave of discourse, the term is used as a euphemism for policies and plans to remove the Palestinian population from Israel to perhaps, Iraq, in the event of a regime change in Iraq. In short transfer is another euphemism for ethnic cleansing; and ethnic cleansing is a euphemism for expulsion &mdash; a euphemism twice removed.

Some racist Jews and Christian Zionists say that "transfer" would be "humane". They come up with many typical and illogical ill-attempts at justifying their rhetoric. Many of the kinds of reasoning they use are similar to reasons Nazis expressed before and during the Holocaust for removing Jews from Europe, under a similar euphemism: "evacuation".

"In simple terms, "transfer" means the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Palestine, as happened in 1948 and 1967. In the situation of 2003, that will be difficult. The question will be: where to? Jordan will close its border and the mass expulsion of Palestinians there would constitute an act of war against the Hashemite kingdom. It is hard to imagine the Americans allowing Sharon to do this while Jordan is serving as one of their bases in the war against neighboring Iraq. Expulsion to Lebanon is almost impossible without creating a war-like situation on the northern border." 

"'But there is another form of transfer: deportation from one part of the occupied territories to another. For example: deportation of the population from towns and villages adjacent to the planned 'separation wall' (Kalkilya, Tulkarm) to the central areas (Nablus).'"

NB: there is a fundamental difference between "expulsion" and "deportation". The dictionary definition of deportation is: "the banishment of an undesirable alien to his/her native country". This term does not apply to Palestinians because they are natives and it cannot be construed that they are undesirable. The correct term for the Israeli practice of banishment implies exile when few individuals are involved, expulsion with larger numbers, and genocide when this is done wholesale.

Transfer