Hundreds Of Palestinians Were Evacuated From Gaza By A Shady Organization On A Plane And Mysteriously Ended Up In South Africa
South African officials say it looks like “a broader agenda to remove Palestinians from Palestine.”
Hundreds of Palestinians were evacuated from Gaza by a shady organization on a plane and mysteriously ended up in South Africa, and South African officials say it looks like “a broader agenda to remove Palestinians from Palestine.”
The 153 Palestinians had paid about US$2,000 per seat to an organization called Al-Majd Europe, a controversial organization registered in Germany that claims to provide humanitarian aid and evacuation services from conflict zones.
Palestinians said Al-Majed Europe said the evacuation offer was only open to families.
They said they did not know when they were leaving Gaza until a day before and were told they could only take a small bag, a mobile phone and some cash, according to Al Jazeera.
They were taken by bus from Rafah to the Karem Abu Salem crossing, which is controlled by Israel, where they were checked, then transferred to Israel’s Ramon airport, without Israeli authorities stamping their travel documents.
Families, including a pregnant woman and children, then boarded the plane, not knowing their final destination, ultimately transiting through Nairobi, Kenya, before landing in Johannesburg.
The passengers arrived at Johannesburg’s main airport on Nov. 14, with none of their passports having exit stamps, no return tickets and no confirmed accommodation.
Because of these irregularities, South Africa’s border officials kept the Palestinians on the plane for about 12 hours.
Border officials questioned who had arranged the flight and why everyone arrived without proper clearance or paperwork.
The Palestinians were also not sure when asked by immigration where they would stay or how long they planned to be in South Africa.
After hours of negotiations, humanitarian group Gift of the Givers stepped in to house the passengers, and about 130 were eventually allowed to enter South Africa under the country’s 90-day visa exemption rules.
The rest, about 23 Palestinians, travelled onwards to other countries.
South African authorities blocked any further flights, calling the operation “suspicious” with concerns that this could have been a forced migration initiated by the Israelis.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, “These are people from Gaza who somehow mysteriously were put on a plane that passed by Nairobi and came here,” adding it seems like they were being “flushed out” of Gaza.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine warned Palestinians, especially in Gaza, “to exercise caution and avoid falling prey to human trafficking networks, blood merchants and displacement agents.”
The Palestinian embassy in South Africa said in a statement that the flight was arranged by “an unregistered and misleading organization that exploited the tragic humanitarian conditions of our people in Gaza, deceived families, collected money from them, and facilitated their travel in an irregular and irresponsible manner”.
An investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz found that Al-Majd Europe has ties to the Israeli government, adding that the company is allegedly owned by a dual Israeli-Estonian national called Tomer Janar Lind, who works with the Voluntary Emigration Bureau that was set up earlier this year by the Israeli government to forcibly transfer Palestinians from Gaza.
The Al-Majd Europe website says it was founded in 2010 in Germany, but the site itself has no address or phone number, providing just a location in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, but there was no office found there, according to Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera also reported that many people were told to pay via bank transfers to personal, not organizational, accounts.
Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman told AP that this was the second plane to arrive in South Africa, saying that another plane arrived with more than 170 Palestinians on board on Oct. 28, but that flight was not announced by authorities.
Haaretz also reported that there had been a similar flight on May 27 that flew 57 Palestinians from Gaza on a plane to Budapest, and from there they continued to Indonesia and Malaysia.
More On Palestine
Cherry Mohamed
Cherry Mohamed
Cherry Mohamed
