Trump has made controversial claims about Gaza and surprised everyone. He explicitly mentioned his idea that the US should take control of the territory, remove its people, and “develop” it. He has suggested that the US should take control of Gaza to ensure stability. Palestinians should be relocated to another part of the world. He has proposed moving Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to Egypt and Jordan, arguing they would be “better off.”
Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia have explicitly rejected the idea. These countries believe the US can’t force them to accept Trump’s plan for Palestinian relocation. However, Egypt and Jordan are very reliant on US aid. They may need to start looking elsewhere for funding to escape the US. This plan raised a wave of concern and objections from other states worldwide.
Netanyahu excited about Trump’s plan for Palestinian relocation
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently addressed reporters at the White House. The US president laid out his plan for the US to “take over” Gaza. It also includes relocating Palestinians to neighbouring countries. Then redeveloping the war-torn enclave into what he described as the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Trump’s shocking comments break with decades of US foreign policy. It has long emphasized a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Trump’s plan for Palestinian relocation is also against Trump’s past wariness over US intervention in the Middle East.
Israeli airstrikes have damaged or destroyed around 60% of buildings. According to the United Nations, It includes schools, hospitals, and around 92% of homes. There are already about 5.9 million Palestinian refugees worldwide. Most of them are descendants of people who fled with the creation of Israel in 1948. Half of Gaza’s population were already refugees from outside the coastal Strip. Approximately 90% of Gaza residents were displaced in the latest war. According to the UN, many have been forced to move repeatedly, some more than 10 times. Israel’s far-right has long endorsed the idea of expelling Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, and lawmakers welcomed Trump’s comments about taking over the Strip.
Ethnic cleansing of Gaza
Israel’s military has already been preparing plans to allow Palestinians to exit Gaza. That follows the US president saying the US would take over the Gaza Strip and ‘do a job with it too’. With Trump’s plan for Palestinian relocation announced, Netanyahu can pitch himself to his far-right devotees. This is also the only Israeli political figure who can get the US president to make their vision for the Middle East a reality—that vision to bury peace with Palestinians once and for all.
Instead of removing illegal Israeli settlers to pave the way to a Palestinian state, Trump decided to relocate Gazans against International Law and the willingness of Palestinians. Displacing Palestinians from Gaza would put an end to Palestinian statehood. an objective Netanyahu doesn’t care to hide. A US takeover of the Strip could also form part of a bigger bargain to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank. This is as much of Israel’s far-right demands. That would previously have been an unimaginable turn in US policy. Following the Trump-Netanyahu summit, it has to be seen as a real possibility.
It seems the UK opposes the relocation of Palestinians for now.
Britain will oppose any efforts to move Palestinians out from the Gaza Strip to neighbouring Arab countries, the UK government said. There must be no forced displacement of Palestinians, nor any reduction in the territory of the Gaza Strip,” the UK’s Minister for Development at the Foreign Office, Anneliese Dodds, said, addressing the House of Commons. Official UK statement at the UN Security Council was opposing Trump’s plan for Palestinian relocation. Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council said, “Gazans should not be subject to forcible displacement or relocation from Gaza.”
“They must be allowed home,” Starmer said.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer distanced the UK from US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over the Gaza Strip and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Starmer said his objection in the House of Commons about relocating Gazan. “They must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution.” “We must see two states, and we must see Palestinians able to live and prosper in their homelands in Gaza, in the West Bank. That is what we want to get to,” said Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
UK Cabinet minister Steve Reed said the US president deserved “credit” for helping to secure a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. But he stressed that the UK still backs a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and to Palestinians — who had lived through a “nightmare” — returning to their homes.
What are the other global actors’ views about the Trump Plan for Gaza?
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz strongly criticized US President Donald Trump for suggesting that Palestinians be relocated from Gaza. He called it a “scandal” and an “appalling” idea that violates international Law. Saudi Arabia rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has affirmed the kingdom’s position clearly and explicitly that it does not allow any interpretation under any circumstances.
His Majesty King Abdullah II stresses the need to put a stop to (Israeli) settlement expansion. He was expressing rejection of any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians. France reiterates its opposition to any forced displacement of the Palestinian population of Gaza. Paris believes this plan would constitute a serious violation of international Law. This is an attack on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, a significant obstacle to the two-state solution, and a major destabilizing factor for our close partners Egypt and Jordan, as well as for the entire region. Australia’s position is the same as it was this morning, as it was last year. The Australian government supports, on a bipartisan basis, a two-state solution.
UN’s Body Reaction to Relocation of Gazan.
The United Nations’ top investigator on human rights in Palestine believed Trump’s plan for Palestinian relocation. It means displacing Palestinians from Gaza is illegal under international Law and “amounts to ethnic cleansing,” Navi Pillay, chair of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, also objected to this plan. She said, “Trump is woefully ignorant of international Law and the Law of occupation. Forcible displacement of an occupied group is an international crime and amounts to ethnic cleansing.”
She noted, “adding that governments should impose the same against Israel. Apartheid is a crime against humanity under the Law governing the ICC. Countries around the world helped bring down apartheid in South Africa with sanctions against the regime.”
