First published by the Israeli news site Calcalist and entitled “Alternatives for a Political Directive for the Civilian Population in Gaza”, the document presents and recommends a plan for Israel to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its entire Palestinian population.

Though not formally adopted as policy by the Israeli government, the plan bears striking parallels with military action Israel has already taken on the ground.

Stage 1-3

According to the first stage of the plan, “aerial operations will be carried out with a focus on the northern Gaza Strip to allow for … [an Israeli] ground maneuver into an evacuated zone that does not require combat in a densely populated civilian area”.

The second stage involves “a gradual ground maneuver [that] will proceed from the north along the border until the entire Gaza Strip is occupied, and the underground bunkers are cleared of Hamas combatants”.

The culmination of the plan is the forced expulsion of Palestinians to Egypt, specifically the Sinai Peninsula that borders Rafah. For this reason, the plan recommends that “it is important to leave southward-bound transportation routes open to allow for the evacuation of the civilian population towards Rafah”.

All three stages have, to various extents, occurred in Gaza. In mid-October, the world saw Israel undertake the described “aerial operations” by bombing the north of Gaza. Since then it’s been bombing the whole of the territory. Hence many within and outside Gaza, including the UN, continue to warn that “nowhere is safe in Gaza”.

As of this writing, over 10,000 have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces, at least 4100 of whom are children.

Though Israeli ground forces did partly retreat from areas of Gaza on Sunday, they still remain in its north while Israeli bombing continues to claim the lives of Palestinians throughout the besieged territory.

Despite most of the Palestinian population being stuck or killed in Gaza, Israel has managed, at least since November 1, to slowly but steadily push part of it into Egypt. Currently, there are over 530,000 Palestinians that have taken refuge in United Nations facilities in southern Gaza alone.

Whether this will eventually lead to the “tent cities” that the leaked document recommends Palestinians live in is not entirely clear.

Such cities specifically would form, as the leak document states, a “resettlement area in Northern Sinai”. Egypt however is pushing back against this possibility.

In what sounds like a military threat, the country’s Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, said in late October: “We are ready to sacrifice millions of lives to protect our territory from any encroachment”, referring to displaced Palestinians from Gaza.

This begs the question as to how sizable tent cities housing potentially millions of Palestinians would be established anywhere in Egypt, let alone what the leaked document calls a “sterile zone”.

This area, according to the document, “must be established several kilometers within Egypt and the return of the population to activities or residence near the Israeli border should not be allowed.

This is in addition to the creation of a security perimeter within our territory near the border with Egypt”.

A ‘good’ Muslim would not return

If Israel’s plan materializes fully, this also means that Egypt would have to dedicate a sizable portion of its territory to not only housing Palestinians but prevent them from even so much as getting “near the Israeli border”.

This arguably would involve military and other infrastructure, such as roads, communication facilities, and watchtowers, used in the service of impeding the movement of Palestinians.

Despite Madbouly’s resistance to the presence of displaced Palestinians, Middle East-based organizations Burjeel Holdings, Response Plus Holding, and Cleopatra Hospitals Group have already offered to provide health care to Palestinians who do manage to enter Egypt.

This help unfortunately is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is providing Palestinians with the support they urgently require. On the other, however, it benefits Israel since – in keeping with the ethnic cleansing plan – the help keeps Palestinians out of Gaza, which is where Israel wants them.

However far Israel might advance the plan, it – as outlined by the “promising advertising agencies” section of the leaked document – would attempt to gain political support for it in the process. This includes “campaigns that promote the plan in the Western world and … campaigns targeted at the non-pro-Israel world focusing on assisting Palestinian brothers and helping their recovery”.

Moreover, the attempt also includes “specific campaigns targeting Gaza residents themselves, encouraging them to accept the plan – the messages should revolve around the loss of land, clarifying that there is no hope of returning to the territories Israel will occupy soon, whether it is right or not.

“The message should be, ‘Allah decided you lose this land because of Hamas’ leadership – the only option is to move to another place with the help of your Muslim brothers’”.

These campaigns, in addition to the ruthless violence it has engaged in Gaza, speak to Israel’s possible interest in waging psychological warfare against both the global public and Palestinians themselves.

By emphasizing the need for “recovery”, Israel would seek to distract the global public from what it’s actually doing to Palestinians while stressing their miserable predicament. In turn, the global public would be inclined to sympathize or even pity the Palestinian people, rather than – as we are seeing internationally at the moment, such as at various street demonstrations and protests – being indignant at Israel.

This also undermines the possibility that the global public will be inclined to ally itself with Palestinians themselves, within the larger struggle for justice Palestinians are entitled to and on account of crimes perpetrated by Israel against them (since and before October 7, when Israel began its most recent campaign of deadly violence against Gaza).

Further, through potentially conveying to Palestinians themselves that “Allah decided you lose this land because of Hamas’ leadership – the only option is to move to another place with the help of your Muslim brothers”, Israel would deplorably attempt to use Islam – the religious faith with which most Palestinians identify – to compel them on seemingly theological or moral grounds to stay away from Gaza.

Likewise, and of course perversely, a “good” Muslim would not return to Gaza. For doing so means going against God’s will, perhaps deserving of punishment or rebuke from the very “Muslim brothers” (around the world) now in solidarity with Palestinians – politically, spiritually, etc.

It’s not a stretch that Israel would seek to introduce such dishonest and offensive logic in schools. One part of the leaked document observes: “It is essential to shape a public narrative that internalizes the failure and moral injustice of the Hamas movement and replaces the old perception with a moderate Islamic ideology”.

For Israel, this means “ it is crucial to write the curriculum for schools and enforce their use on an entire generation”.

Where, geographically, Israel possibly intends to do this is not entirely clear from the leaked document. However, given the state’s well-known interference in universities internationally, as seen where Israel or lobbyists that represent its interests attempt to silence pro-Palestinian voices from being heard (for example, at the Palestine Writes Literature Festival held at the University of Pennsylvania last September), those committed to the integrity of education should be concerned.

Where Israel or any other state for that matter is able “to write the curriculum for schools and enforce their use on an entire generation”, students are subject to government propaganda – a far cry from genuine education or knowledge acquisition.

The late American political thinker and activist Howard Zinn illuminates this well.

“Knowledge [is] important”, writes Zinn in The Politics of History, “because although it cannot confront force directly, it can counteract the deception that makes the government’s force legitimate.

“And the knowledge industry, which directly reaches seven million young people in colleges and universities, thus becomes a vital and sensitive locus of power. That power can be used, as traditionally, to maintain the status quo, or … to change it”.

This applies to students not only in universities but sites of learning throughout the world that can, through teaching others about the truth of Israel – including but not limited to the current atrocities it’s committing in Gaza – mobilize them as well to stop the harm it inflicts against Palestinians.

This weakens the chances that Israel will succeed in any plan, outlined in the leaked document or otherwise, to ethnically cleanse Gaza, let alone dupe others by psychological warfare that serves this reprehensible end.

This reflects the power of education to, beyond a means of acquiring knowledge, prepare others to be effective allies to Palestine. In this capacity, they can work collectively to prevent its erasure from the world.