During a discussion on far-right Israeli Channel 14, host Yinon Magal suggested establishing a Palestinian state in Uganda. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replied: “Your proposal will be given serious consideration.”

This joke has a dark history. Before the state of Israel was created, European Zionists considered a Jewish state in East Africa. It was called the Uganda Scheme. In 1903, British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain offered Theodor Herzl a piece of land in British East Africa. Herzl presented it at the Sixth Zionist Congress. The proposal caused a huge fight in the Zionist movement. It was rejected in 1905.

But the land was not actually in Uganda. It was in modern-day Kenya. So Netanyahu and the host are making a joke about a real colonial plan. And they are joking about sending Palestinians to Africa. This is the same logic of displacement and ethnic cleansing