Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday there was nothing wrong in Donald Trump's idea of displacing Palestinians from Gaza after the U.S. president's proposal drew international criticism.

But beneath his astonishing plan were echoes of forced displacement that have shaped Palestinian society since 1948. The establishment of Israel that year in the Arab-Israeli war is known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” because of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes.

Some - perhaps many - Palestinians in Gaza might be tempted to get out if they had the chance. But even if a million left, close to 1.5m others would still be there. Presumably the United States - the new owners of Trump's "Riviera of the Middle East,