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The Take

How are Palestinians from Gaza ending up in South Africa?

The Take

Al Jazeera

News, Daily News, Politics, News Commentary

4.7748 Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

More than 150 Palestinians from Gaza landed in Johannesburg on a mysterious charter flight run by a little-known group called Al-Majd Europe. South Africa says it was blindsided, but Israel calls the move “voluntary emigration”. The journey is raising fears that these flights are becoming a new way to push Palestinians off their land.

In this episode:

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Noor Wazwaz, Haleemah Shah, Sarí el-Khalili, Marcos Bartolomé, Tracie Hunte with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Diana Ferrero, Tamara Khandaker, Farhan Rafid, Fatima Shafiq, and our host Malika Bilal. It was edited by Kylene Kiang. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad Al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is the Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Al Jazeera Podcasts.

0:07.0

Today, a mysterious flight from Gaza to South Africa.

0:16.1

These are people from Gaza, who somehow mysteriously were put on a play that passed by Nairobi and came here.

0:27.9

Charter flights organized by a shadowy group are being described as voluntary immigration.

0:34.1

Is it a lifeline or a new method of ethnic cleansing?

0:39.2

I'm Malika Bilal and this is The Take.

0:49.7

Hey everyone, while you're watching this interview,

0:52.7

remember to leave us a comment telling us what you think about this episode and all of its twists and turns.

0:58.6

And if you're listening, leave us a review telling us where you're listening from and rate us, which helps other people find the show you already know and love.

1:09.9

My name is Abid Ayub, I Palestinian from Gaza and I am an independent journalist.

1:15.6

Well, Habir, welcome to the take. These stories of charter flights in recent months flying

1:23.6

Palestinians out of Gaza to different countries have been circulating online.

1:30.1

They are shocking. They've been all over social media.

1:32.6

The most recent flight was last Thursday, where more than 150 Palestinians were flown to Johannesburg, South Africa.

1:41.3

We spoke to one of those passengers, a young, 19-year-old Palestinian woman named

1:46.7

Shahed Abu Samara. She'd been living in Gaza alone after her family had already been evacuated.

1:52.7

She told us that she paid $2,000 to make that difficult journey.

1:58.5

It was hard. We had to travel using bus from Karim Abusalam to Bramon.

2:06.8

It was four hours in the bus.

2:10.3

And then we took a plane to Kenya for almost five hours.

2:20.3

Then from Kenya to South Africa also a plane for six hours.

2:27.3

And then we stuck in South Africa in the plane for 12 hours.

...

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