Haaretz: An Israeli-run association behind the mysterious flights that transport Palestinians from the Gaza Strip via Ramon Airport to Johannesburg
The Haaretz newspaper revealed on Sunday who is behind the mysterious flights transporting Palestinians from the Gaza Strip through Ramon Airport is an association run by a person with dual Israeli-Estonian citizenship, and turned out to be just a facade for a consulting firm registered in Estonia.
On Friday, South African border authorities said in a statement that dozens of Palestinians who arrived at O. R. Tambo International” in Johannesburg, on Wednesday, coming from Kenya, after initially being denied entry because they did not meet the entry requirements.
Despite the reception, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in remarks quoted by the Associated Press that the country’s intelligence services are investigating the party behind a chartered plane that landed in Johannesburg, with more than 150 Palestinians coming from war-torn Gaza, without official travel documents.
The association offered Palestinians about $2,000 to book a seat on charter flights to faraway countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and South Africa, founded in Germany with offices in East Jerusalem, but a press investigation showed that the actual registration takes place in Estonia and that the activity is managed through that consulting firm.
Haaretz added that the Voluntary Migration Directorate of the Israeli Ministry of Defense referred the activity of this entity to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories to coordinate the exit of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
It pointed out that several flights chartered by this entity took off in recent months from Ramon Airport near Eilat, with groups of Gazans on board, in an indication of a semi-organized trajectory of the exit of increasing numbers, not just individual cases.
The center-right Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said that an organization called al Majd, based in Jerusalem, was responsible for the evacuation of more than 150 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
The foundation, which was founded in 2010, works to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip under the pretext of helping and claims to “help Muslim communities in conflict zones”.
The foundation’s website doesn’t include phone numbers or addresses, and its list of partners is empty, although it works with 15 international bodies, but it accompanied by a message: “Details will be published soon”.
According to an Israeli military official, “Israel escorted the buses that transported the passengers from a meeting point in Gaza to the Kerem Shalom crossing, and from there other buses took them to Ramon Airport in the Negev, from which the plane took off”.
The secrecy of the trip has raised concerns from human rights organizations, which have warned that it could be part of an Israeli effort to displace Palestinians from the Strip.
The Israeli government’s coordinator for activities in the Palestinian territories, Ghassan Alyan, said that the Palestinians left the Gaza Strip after Israel obtained permission from a third country to absorb them without naming them.
Israel, which controls more than half of the Gaza Strip, has previously discussed with countries including South Sudan the possibility of displacing Palestinians there, According to an Associated Press report.
Meanwhile, according to Israeli reports, about 40,000 Palestinians have left the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli genocide on October 8, 2023.
Israeli government ministers have repeatedly talked about the idea of displacing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as part of the two-year war.
