Egypt’s Foreign Minister rejects ‘Greater Israel’ in Rafah visit
Egypt’s Foreign Minister visited the Rafah crossing that borders the besieged Gaza strip, where he rejected the vision of ‘Greater Israel’, according to Middle East Monitor on August 18th.
At a press conference during his visit with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said that “we reject any Palestinian displacement from Gaza” as part of a wider policy to forcibly expand Israeli territory.
This statement was a rebuff of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s televised proclamation that he is on a “historic and spiritual mission” in pursuit of a ‘Greater Israel’, with “generations of Jews that dreamt of coming here and generations of Jews who will come after us.”
‘Greater Israel’ is originally a biblical term, but also refers to the 1967 Six-Day War borders where Israel effectively tripled its size by seizing control of the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Syrian Golan Heights, as reported by Middle East Monitor on August 13th.
Evidently, Netanyahu’s expansionist dream is blatantly hostile towards Egyptian sovereignty. A statement issued by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry on August 13th labelled the comment as evidence of a hawkish fervour within the Israeli government.
During his Rafah visit, Abdelatty also reiterated that Israel continues to restrict the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip. Al Jazeera reported on August 18th that 266 Palestinians, including 122 children, are known to have died of starvation due to Israel’s blockade.
He stated that Egypt “is ready to flood Gaza with humanitarian aid as soon as the Israeli restrictions are removed”, adding that “our position on the Palestinian issue is firm and unchanging. We reiterate our rejection of all policies aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause.”
According to TRT Global via AFP on August 18th, Abdelatty also revealed that Cairo is willing to join an international security force deployed to Gaza “in some specific parameters”, adding the caveat that it must be backed by a UN security council resolution. “Without a political horizon, it will be meaningless to deploy any forces there”, he added.
Middle East Monitor, Maghrebi.org, Al Jazeera, TRT Global, AFP
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