‘That’s ethnic cleansing’: Trump called out over questionable Gaza takeover plans
In another horrifying announcement, President Donald Trump has announced his intention to level Gaza and “clean out the whole thing.”
The casual way Trump calls for the ethnic cleansing of over 2 million people has chilled many to the bone, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen. Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, where the two held a press conference. During this press conference, Trump spoke about his plans for Gaza—a country he is not President of or elected to rule in any capacity – saying, “The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” adding, “We’ll own it.” Trump sees the land of the Palestinian people as nothing more than a real estate cash grab, telling reporters,
“We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings — level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job. Do something different.”
The “site” is currently the graveyard of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been killed at the hands of Israeli forces since Oct. 7, 2023. When asked about the remaining Palestinian people who live there, Trump said, “You’re talking about a million and a half people … we just clean out that whole thing.”
A response of horror
The response from leaders both within the U.S. and around the world has been to denounce Trump’s blatant attempt at 21st-century colonization. Talking with CNN on Wednesday morning, Hollen, the Democratic Senator for Maryland, said,
“This is an insane proposal, and there’s been a huge backlash already, because the president of the United States was saying that he would use U.S. military force, if necessary, to forcibly remove 2 million Palestinians from Gaza — that’s ethnic cleansing by another name — so that it could be redeveloped,”
The Democratic Senator for Minnesota, Tina Smith, called the plans “horrific” and “ridiculous,” pointing out that Trump is.
“completely ignoring the sovereignty and the self determination of the Palestinian people who have lived in this place for generations and he’s got his eye on some real estate deal because he thinks the coastline of Gaza is going to be great for some new hotel.”
Of course, leaders in the Arab world have also expressed disgust at Trump’s takeover plans. “We will not allow the rights of our people… to be infringed on,” stressed the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas. He warned that Gaza is “an integral part of the State of Palestine” and that forced displacement would be a serious violation of international law. Talking to BBC Arabic, one Gazan civilian said “We have endured nearly a year and a half of bombings and destruction, yet we remain in Gaza. We would rather die in Gaza than leave it. We will stay here until we rebuild it. Trump can do as he pleases, but we firmly reject his decisions.”
The Saudi Arabian foreign minister said that the kingdom “unequivocally rejected” Trump’s plan for Gaza. He reiterated that Saudi Arabia would continue to work on building an independent Palestinian state and would “not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.” Western nations were also perturbed at Trump’s comments, with France’s foreign ministry saying that Trump’s plans to forcibly remove the Palestinians from Gaza would “constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, but also a major obstacle to the two-state solution and a major destabilising factor for our close partners Egypt and Jordan, as well as for the entire region”.
Netanyahu, on the other hand, spent the entire press conference looking like the cat who got the cream. “This is the kind of thinking that will reshape the Middle East and bring peace,” he said of Trump’s plan. Israel is responsible for the close to 50,000 Palestinian deaths that have occurred in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, with top officials voicing desires to ethnically cleanse the area of all Palestinians. With Trump’s most recent statement, they’re more emboldened than before.
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