Don’t count countries that only would grant a short-term tourist visa. As an example consider a family of husband, wife, 2 children ages 2-18 no specialized job skills. They would be supported by a grant from a hypothetical charity.
Is it the same situation for a resident of the West Bank? I would think so.
How about Palestinians living in Israel proper or Palestinians living in countries like Jordan and Syria?
I thought that Gaza and the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank were both the same country. Can a Gaza-ite not travel to the West Bank the same way an Alaskan can move to Illinois?
Nope, it is nigh on impossible for a resident of Gaza to enter the West Bank. There’s a number of people in Gaza (mainly ex-political prisoners and militants) from the West Bank who’ve been exiled there by Israel.
In 2008 Israel helped Fatah supporters flea the Gaza Strip, Gaza becoming Hamas controlled. They took the Fatah people to West Bank …
Hamas and Fatah have heads of agreement to be unified as Palestine, but perhaps the effect at work is “the enemy of your enemy is your friend…”… Fatah is condoning the Israeli occupation of West Bank… while Hamas is vehemently opposed to Israeli occupation of Israel…
Here’s the top 9 Palestinians diaspora populations (From wikipedia article “palestinian diaspora”)… In Arab countries they are treated as less-than-resident… Like put in camps and told that they can’t go to work or school …as if they will go home soon.
Jordan 3,240,000
Israel 1,650,000
Syria 630,000
Chile 500,000
Lebanon 402,582
Saudi Arabia 280,245
Egypt 270,245
United States 255,000
Honduras 250,000
That’s because Palestine is an occupied and divided country, and a lot of the travel (all travel) is controlled by Israel. In fact, the West Bank isn’t the west bank - it’s a swiss cheese of a few dozen pieces of Palestinian-controlled (to some extent) land bisected by roads under Israeli control and in some places, the “border wall” dives deep inside the Palestinian land to protect Israeli settlements put on land taken from the Palestinians.
The Arabs who are living in Israel generally are Israeli citizens - except, I understand that East Jerusalem residents have a special living permit to be allowed to stay in the city they were born and grew up in; a right they could lose if they are away from the place for too long. As I understand it, they have the option to ask for Israeli citizenship, but essentially it’s a Hobsons Choice. The Israelis demand they then renounce all other citizenships, which would make them social pariahs and likely targets of revenge killings; so Israel has the moral high ground of saying “we offered”, knowing there would be almost no takers. For example, if an East Jerusalem occupant wants to marry someone from the west bank (or Gaza) that spouse will not get a permit to live in east Jerusalem.
I think Jordan offers West Bank residents travel documents if they need to go somewhere that does not accept Palestinian documents. Not sure about Gaza.
I don’t know of any specific restrictions on Gaza immigration, for example, to Canada. However, it will be very difficult to perform any background checks; similarly, Canada AFAIK has no consulate in the Gaza Strip, so visitng the Embassy in Jerusalem to fill out paper and do interviews is pretty much impossible. Egypt has a vested interest in not loosening the border either, since recently militants from Gaza have snuck out through the border to attack Israel, and have killed Egyptian military and police in the Sinai.
So at this point, it is the world’s biggest concentration camp. When times get tough, the Israelis prevent supplies from entering. Until recently, Israel authorities used to bulldoze the house of the extended family if anyone was involved in a terrorist attack; now they just bomb them. Can’t understand why the Gaza people hate Israel’s guts? You don’t need Palestinian militants to persuade them.
Visas are processed in Tel Aviv:
In 2001, Canada’s foreign minister, John Manley, was burned in effigy over the issue.
That doesn’t actually show that Canada allows immigration from Gaza on the terms specified by the OP. It only says that some people from Palestine have been allowed to immigrate to Canada. I’d expect these are either refugees or people with skills that entered under an employment permit scheme, both of which could apply to anyone from any country who met the criteria rather than being specifically “allowing immigration from Gaza”.
I’m not sure if the type of thing OP is talking about exists anywhere.
True enough. But refugees can be sponsored as explained by one sponsor:
… and relatives can be sponsored:
… and employees can be sponsored:
But as far as sponsorship by charity of any randomly chosen individual is concerned, I can’t find anything. But then, why would a legitimate charity want to do this anyway.
You have to be very careful of nuances when talking about the Palestine problem. John Manley suggested Canada would welcome Palestinian immigrants after a peace settlement. Given the west’s general tendency to support Israel, this could also be interpreted as telling the Israelis to go ahead and take whatever land they wanted from Palestine, and Canada would be a safety valve for any displaced Palestinians. Any statement that seems to encourage the Israeli side to displace more people, or suggests a form of blackmail (“no immigrants until you sign…” was one interpretation) will result in a backlash from he Palestinian community.
The Canadian Embassy is in Tell Aviv, so anyone wanting to immigrate to Canada AFAIK has to show up there in person, numerous, times, wait years for the process to complete. Their chances are iffy without training in an in-demand job (medical, high tech, engineers, etc.) Since it’s pretty much impossible for the average Gaza resident to wander into Israel, they probably are not going to be doing multiple visits to the Canadian embassy over the course of a few years. They are not forbidden from immigrating here, it’s just logistically impossible without help from friends in high places.
I guess there are no such charities, but that is not because they would be illegitimate. What would be illegitimate about sponsoring poor Irish to come to the U.S. in 1850? If some families want to stay in Gaza indefinitely still dreaming of recovering their ancestral property in Ra’anana or someplace, they can try, but for those ready to quit an overcrowded postage stamp of a country, it would be wonderful if only they could do so.
Thanks for the material on Canada.
An illegitimate charity might take the notion that should a family express an interest in leaving a concentration camp run by crazies with guns, who have no problem antagonizing the neighbour with big bombs, where the water quality is so poor it causes liver damage, where there is no educational or economic opportunities, where even medical supplies can be embargoed as a pressure tactic, where women and children are bombed or beaten by both sides, where the local “authorities” don’t see anything wrong with recruiting your children, even the mentally handicapped ones, as suicide bombers - maybe the charitable thing would be to help that family if they want to leave?
This Palestinian attitude to citizenship is interesting. Compare it to 1970’s-1990’s Irish Republicanism in Northern Ireland. Supporters of the IRA had few qualms about carrying a British passport- it’s just a meaningless paper document to them that doesn’t dilute their Irish identity. Similarly it’s not taboo for a republican to work for most government departments, with the exception of the police, military & justice system- as working for a relatively harmless civil service organisation doesn’t necessarily mean you support the British state overall. And most of all it was never considered unpatriotic to accept British welfare payments (though unemployed people had little choice it was that or starve)- if anything you were contributing to the republican cause by depriving the British state of funds.
For awhile it was like China. You had two separate governments after 2007, each saying they were the sole legitimate government of the entire country. On the ground, the Fatah-supported government controlled the West Bank and the Hamas-supported government controlled the Gaza Strip.
This changed last month when the two governments reached an agreement and formed a unified government.
Well, nowadays the potato famine would normally be relieved by food-aid - not to mention political pressure on the British government and establishment to stop exacerbating the situation.
My suggestion is that as miserable as the Palestinian situation is, there are many who are worse off and more likely to receive charitable assistance as refugees.
Good point. It’s possible for anyone to immigrate anywhere if they qualify under the applicable rules. It is possible to immigrate to Canada - there are rules. Follow the rules, you can get a visa. Don’t qualify, or don’t follow the rules? No visa for you. I think the OP is envisioning an immigration policy saying more or less “Citizens of Country A are entitled to immigrate to Country B with no specific qualifications or permissions, they can just up and go”. Relatively few countries permit this - the EU might be an example where unrestricted immigration is largely permitted. Just finished college in Spain, and getting an itch to immigrate to Germany? Sure. I doubt there are any such “unrestricted entry” countries for Gaza Strip residents. But, as mentioned elsewhere, they can qualify to immigrate to another country. They just have to qualify, e.g. through a job offer, marriage <3, refugee status, etc…
Hardly any countries would allow such immigrants.
Why would a country want to accept 4 impoverished people, with no job skills, no job waiting for them, and probably not even speaking the language? This would just be importing people to go on government assistance – most countries already have enough of their own citizens with dependent children and no job skills receiving government assistance. And no charity is going to commit to support the family for all the years until those children are adults.
Countries will do this in special cases for humanitarian reasons, for specific people who face political persecution, but not for immigrants in general. Nearly all countries have requirements for immigration, and showing that you are able to support yourself and your family is a pretty standard requirement.
Israel tries to prevent armaments from entering Gaza. She has never prevented humanitarian supplies from entering. Israel bulldozed houses that were shielding rocket launchers during a land invasion. She is now bombing the sites that have rocket launchers, which include homes, schools, and mosques. She warns the residents before the bombing to leave but Hamas urges them to stay as that is good propaganda for Hamas (to have civilian deaths). It is a matter of self-defense. Would the USA allow Mexico to launch rockets into Texas? Hamas is responsible for the civilian casualties. If Hamas would stop the rockets, Israel would stop the bombing.
It was Israel’s government who forcibly evicted her own people from the Gaza strip so that Palestinians could live there. but Hamas has usurped that land and uses it as a base for attacking Israel.
BTW, it is “emigration from Gaza.” One emigrates from one place and immigrates to another.