Israel's 'humanitarianism' towards Ukrainian refugees is veiled self-interest

When war broke out in Ukraine, forcing millions to flee their homes in search of safety, Israel was among the first countries to unroll the welcome mat for those seeking refuge. Israel’s humanitarianism was praised by the international community and Western media, but what was often left out were the details about just who was allowed in.

In reality, Israel is selecting who will be granted asylum in the country based upon their identity. Initially, many of the refugees accepted by Israel were Ukrainian Jews, later expanded to include some without Jewish heritage.

But according to Palestinian experts and analysis, Israel is also taking advantage of the war in Ukraine for its own personal gains: expanding settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"But according to Palestinian experts and analysis, Israel is also taking advantage of the war in Ukraine for its own personal gains: expanding settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories"

On March 7th, The New York Times published an article entitled ‘Once Victims in Southeast Europe, Jews Come to Aid Fleeing Ukrainians’. The article paints Israel as heroic for taking in and aiding Ukrainian refugees. However, like many others published in Western media, it simply glosses over and all but justifies the prospect of Israel using Jewish Ukrainian refugees in order to commit a war crime by settling them in the West Bank.

Among leading human rights groups, Israel is largely considered to be a regime based on the supremacy of Jewish people over Palestinians. Amnesty International, Human Right Watch and Israel’s top human rights group B’Tselem all accuse Israel of committing the crime of apartheid. Yet, this point seems to be irrelevant to any analysis of Israel’s actions in Western media.

Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine on 24th of February, roughly 24,000 Ukrainian refugees have been accepted by Israel in what may be the largest wave of immigration into Israel since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Jewish demographic supremacy, inevitably translated into geographical domination, drives the law in Israel. Every new wave of immigration - including that from Ukraine - only serves to further perpetuate the status quo. @emadmoussa explains how ⬇ https://t.co/vCtgWBJ6pw

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) April 2, 2022

Although Israel had stated that it wouldn’t deport Ukrainians during the war, on March 7 a non-Jewish Ukrainian family was on the verge of expulsion, according to the Times of Israel. The family's lawyer, Tamir Belnick, told Walla news at the time “Is it reasonable that Poland takes in a million refugees and Israel is not prepared to accept even a few hundred?”

According to Haaretz newspaper, Israel’s right-wing Interior Minister, Ayelet Shaked, is only open to taking in 5,000 non-Jewish Ukrainians. Although some members of Israel’s Knesset advocated for doing more to help Ukrainian refugees, the Likud Party’s Yariv Levin cursed Shaked’s policy and stated that the policy would "flood the country with foreign [non-Jewish] immigrants."

By February 27, the Jewish Agency had announced that 2,500 Jewish Ukrainians had already applied for ‘Aliyah’ - a term for Israel’s ‘Return’ Law which gives Jews from anywhere in the world Israeli citizenship. It also stated on that same date that at least 5,000 Ukrainian Jews had made inquiries.

But even with roughly 20,000 Ukrainian Jewish refugees, this still accounts for less than 10% of the total Jewish population of Ukraine. Israel originally alleged that it is willing to take in as many as 200,000 Ukrainian Jews despite this being highly unlikely due to recent restrictions announced.

Immediately after Israel welcomed the first refugees, it began to make plans to use these new arrivals to facilitate its continuing encroachment and theft of Palestinian land.

The head of the World Zionist Organisation (WZO)’s settlement department, Yishai Merling, announced in early March that 1,000 settlement housing units for Jewish Ukrainian refugees on Palestinian land. The WZO’s settlement department is funded by the Israeli government and is under its direct control. According to the head of the “Gush Etzion” settlement council, in the West Bank, the area will welcome Jewish Ukrainians as fellow settlers and will facilitate their integration into settler life.

"Whilst Israel was being praised for its humanitarian gestures by the Western press, it was actively working on a policy of illegal settlement expansion and seeking to actively settle Jewish Ukrainian refugees in occupied territory"

Under international law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention, as an occupying power it is a war crime to transfer your own civilian population into illegally occupied territory. This means that all Ukrainian Jews who are transferred into these settlements will be actively engaging in a violation of international law.

Palestinian experts say that Israel is cynically using the Ukraine crisis in order to expand its Jewish demographics in the illegally occupied West Bank, thus making a Palestinian state on that land even less possible. Israeli analysts have even argued that the crisis in Ukraine should be used to overshadow the speeding up of the settling of Jews into al-Naqab (the Negev), which is being done at the expense of local Bedouin Palestinian residents.

In response, the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which it slammed the international communities double standards when it comes to punishing Israeli violations of international law, and asserted that this has paved the way to Israel exploiting the Ukraine crisis to continue its crimes in the West Bank.

On March 7, Israeli authorities approved plans for the construction of another 3,365 illegal settler units in East Jerusalem. The move, despite enraging Palestinian residents of the occupied territory, went all but unreported in Western media. Whilst Israel was being praised for its humanitarian gestures by the Western press, it was actively working on a policy of illegal settlement expansion and seeking to actively settle Jewish Ukrainian refugees in occupied territory.

On top of this, the Israeli government has been expressing its concern that not enough Jews are immigrating to Israel and is actively prioritising Jews over non-Jews when it comes to aiding refugees. Clearly, Israel’s priority here has been not to help people as the number one priority, but to use the conflict in Ukraine to further Jewish immigration to Israel and settle these refugees on Palestinian land.

If anything, what this shows is that for the international community, a war crime against Palestinians is acceptable if it means aiding Jewish refugees, which must be called out by human rights activists and the media as the blatant anti-Palestinian racism that it is.

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and has worked with RT, Mint Press, MEMO, Quds News, TRT, Al-Mayadeen English and more.

Follow him on Twitter: @falasteen47

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.