CNN Guest Accuses Israel of Trying to ‘Expel’ Gazans From Their Land: ‘This Is a Definition of Ethnic Cleansing’

Rula Jebreal joined CNN on Monday morning to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas and directly accused Israel of attempted “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza by suggesting refugees flee but not guaranteeing them a right to return.

Jebreal, a Palestinian journalist and former MSNBC foreign policy analyst, joined CNN This Morning to talk about the U.S. government’s position regarding Israel’s planned ground invasion of Gaza. Jebreal pronounced the U.S. calls for a delay “very important,” and she warned of the “humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza” given the increasing shortage of vital resources for civilians:

They see children consuming water that is unfit for human consumption. They’re seeing people basically being operated on without any anesthesia, but also they are seeing real starvation. And 20 trucks of humanitarian [aid] is nothing. What they need is 7,000 now, yesterday.

I’m reading, even, stories where hospitals are becoming morgues, basically. Becoming graveyards. And all of this is happening while Israelis flag and tell the region we’re going to wipe out Gaza.

So the region is very worried because if they are seen as complicit in what’s happening — even scholars, Jewish Israeli scholars, go on television, denounce these policies, and say this is what Israel is doing is a textbook definition of genocide. These are Israeli scholars. So when you hear the region, they don’t want to see being complicit to the destruction of the Palestinian people.

Phil Mattingly continued the conversation by noting that Jordan and Egypt are refusing to let in Palestinian refugees from Gaza. Jebreal explained this by saying Jordan already has a large population of Palestinians and war refugees, while Egypt could be destabilized economically by a mass influx of refugees.

With all of the uncertainty surrounding those who will be displaced by the war, Jebreal accused Israel of causing a refugee crisis that amounts to “ethnic cleansing” as she claims Israel is refusing to allow refugees to return:

Egypt is 100 million people. It’s the poorest country in the Middle East. They didn’t trigger this. They’ve been asking the administration, we are willing to take some, but with one condition: that they would be allowed to return. And Isreal is now refusing.

What Israel is suggesting to those countries, but also to the Palestinians, [is] we would basically expel you, millions probably, and this is a definition of ethnic cleansing. If you are allowing refugees to exit, but never to enter the land they belong to, you are basically creating a massive refugee crisis. So a country that is already paying the prices of other refugee crises.

So the only alternative that they are trying to ask the administration, pressure Israel to create basically a place where if you really care about human life and the sanctity of human life and international law as well. Israel is the ultimate power that can determine what to do with refugees.

Watch above via CNN.

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