Meir Gov’t Planned to Transfer 60,000 Palestinians to Paraguay

The government of former Prime Minister Golda Meir secretly planned in 1969 to encourage Palestinians to move from Gaza to Paraguay, which agreed to accept up to 60,000 of them (then approximately 10% of the population of the Strip), according to the minutes from a cabinet meeting disclosed by public broadcasting service KAN journalist Eran Cicurel this week.

The plan was approved the same year the Mossad ceased hunting Nazis, including in Paraguay, where the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele and many other Nazis were living at the time, raising suspicions that the two policies are linked.

On the background of a Paraguayan news article from May 5, 1970 with the headline "Attack at the Israeli embassy in Asuncion: Secretary loses her life and another is injured," the Hebrew minutes from the 1969 cabinet meeting asked to approve the Mossad's proposal to sponsor the emigration of 60,000 "Arabs from the occupied territories." The four clauses of the agreement are detailed below.

On the background of a Paraguayan news article from May 5, 1970 with the headline “Attack at the Israeli embassy in Asuncion: Secretary loses her life and another is injured,” the Hebrew minutes from the 1969 cabinet meeting asked to approve the Mossad’s proposal to sponsor the emigration of 60,000 “Arabs from the occupied territories.” The four clauses of the agreement are detailed below. (Photo: ABC Color)

The protocol from 1969 states that Israel would: (1) cover the travel expenses of the Palestinians immigrating to Paraguay; (2) give each émigré $100 to cover initial living expenses; (3) pay the Paraguayan government $33 per refugee it accepted; and (4) with the signing of the agreement, Israel would pay Paraguay $350,000 to cover the costs for the first 10,000 émigrés. The total amount Israel intended to spend on the deal was $33 million.

Paraguay agreed to grant up to 60,000 Palestinians residence status immediately upon arrival and citizenship within five years. The deal stipulated that Israel would bear no binding, legal responsibility to allow the émigrés back into Gaza, but did “agree” in principle to take “some” of them back if the situation arose.

The Mossad drew up the deal with pro-US Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner, who was responsible for the murder of thousands of Paraguayans, including indigenous people. Then-prime minister and Labor party leader, Golda Meir, said during the cabinet meeting: “We have to make a decision, and it is very important that everyone agree on it.” Then-Mossad chief Zvi Zamir said Paraguay would be willing to accept “60,000 Muslim Arabs who are not communists.”

The plan was ultimately scrapped for a number of factors principally precipitated by the attack by two Palestinian gunman on the Israeli embassy in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, as detailed in the Spanish-language newspaper article in the figure, above.