OPINION:
Few words are as disturbing to Jews as the word “expulsion.” For Jews, it is a word laden with the weight of terrible memories that reach back thousands of years.
In the chronicle of Jewish biblical history, two expulsions stand out. In 722 B.C.E., the Assyrians forcibly removed the Jewish inhabitants of the northern kingdom of Israel and sent them into exile, from which they never returned. Less than a century and a half later, the citizens of the southern Jewish kingdom of Judah also suffered an expulsion. This time, the Babylonians defeated the Jewish armies and exiled a large portion of the Jewish population to Babylon.
After an exile of some 70 years, the defeat of the Babylonians by the Persians allowed Jews to return home, where they would rebuild their state.
The reestablished Jewish commonwealth would, however, eventually be subjected to conquest. The Greeks conquered Jerusalem, followed by the Romans. In 70 C.E., the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, and yet another exile for the Jewish people, which was more fully completed after an unsuccessful revolt against the Roman conquerors in 136 CE. Some Jews would remain in the area throughout the centuries, but a Jewish state would not be re-created until 1948, with the establishment of the state of Israel.
Although the Roman expulsion was the last expulsion of Jews from their homeland, it was hardly the last expulsion of Jews.
As exiled Jews spread throughout the Roman Empire and elsewhere in the Western world, the Middle East and North Africa, they put down roots in the lands where they settled. However, they persisted in following their religious traditions wherever they went and refused to assimilate and disappear. This tenacity would prompt many more expulsions from their adopted lands.
The list of expulsions of Jews is lengthy and painful. In Christendom, Jews were systematically expelled from the lands they inhabited because of pressures from the Catholic Church and from secular authorities who frequently wanted to benefit from the taking of their property.
Jews were expelled from England in 1290 by Edward I and were not officially allowed to return until Oliver Cromwell so decreed in 1656. France saw fit to expel Jews four times, in 1182, 1306, 1322 and finally in 1394. It would not be until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 that any Jews were officially allowed to live in France. Various German princes expelled Jews whenever it suited their fancy. Muslim rulers frequently expelled or forcibly converted the Jews in their lands.
The most dramatic expulsion of Jews occurred in 1492, when Ferdinand and Isabella, under the sway of the Inquisition, ordered all of the Jews in Spain, then the largest and most prosperous Jewish community in the world, to convert or leave their realm. This expulsion, the largest such action in Jewish history to that time, remains deeply embedded in Jewish memory.
Of course, the 20th century would bring the most destructive expulsions of Jews, accompanied by brutal persecutions and slaughters. The German Nazi regime sought to force Jews, who constituted an important and successful community, out of Germany, stripped them of their rights and then killed them. Wherever the armies of Nazi Germany conquered, they removed Jews, often first exiling them to ghettos and then systematically killing them. Ultimately, some 6 million Jews were expelled from their homes and deprived of their lives.
All of this is deeply etched in the Jewish psyche. Consequently, it is extremely difficult for Jews to contemplate expelling other people or even seeing a voluntary movement of people. Contrary to the rantings of antisemites, Jews did not expel Palestinians from their lands. Most Palestinians who left their homes did so because they did not want to live in a Jewish state. There was periodic consideration of expelling Palestinians, especially after the Six-Day War when Israel took control of the West Bank. Still, the Jews in Israel were never able to bring themselves to do so. The memories of their own expulsions loomed too large.
It is, therefore, not surprising that some Jewish groups, both here and in Israel, have come out against President Trump’s pronouncement regarding the removal, whether voluntary or otherwise, of residents in the Gaza Strip. However, the president’s proposal is not a call for Jews to expel anyone. Rather, it is an acknowledgment of what everyone knows: that it is vital to consider an alternative to the situation in which residents of Gaza endlessly seek to attack and destroy their Jewish neighbors. Expulsion is merely one alternative but an alternative worthy of consideration.
Lesser measures have been attempted repeatedly to pacify the area but failed. Today, the possibility of removing Gaza residents, most of whom are recent arrivals to that area, is not to be viewed as a vindictive act to harm a group of people, but rather it is the product of a dose of reality poured on a complex problem by Mr. Trump.
The violence of Hamas, seemingly supported by many Gaza residents, has made it clear that peace will not come to the region without dramatic change. The expulsion of Gaza residents, while anathema to most Jews, may sadly have to be considered as an option that might permit Israel to exist without being subjected to relentless attacks from Gaza. It has taken the non-Jewish president of the United States to say what Jews themselves have been unable to articulate as a possible means of achieving peace in a deeply troubled part of the world.
• Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington office of a national law firm. He is the author of “Lobbying for Equality: Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Civil Rights during the French Revolution,” published by HUC Press.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.