(Image via msn.com / Wall Street Journal)
Staff Writer: Gwen Pichette
Email: gpichette@umassd.edu
Newly-elected President Donald Trump is making headlines yet again after introducing a shocking proposal: the United States will take over the Gaza Strip and redevelop it.
In a controversial press conference held with the infamous Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump boldly declared that the U.S. would take matters into their own hands regarding the ongoing war and genocide in Palestine.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. 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,” he said.
Yet, international aid and foreign policy experts believe such a plan would only exacerbate Gaza’s already crippling humanitarian crisis.
With a meager food supply and no clean water, along with a very near collapse of its health care system, Gaza is in dire need of aid. Experts like Anelle Sheline, a foreign policy research fellow at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, urge the president to flood resources to Gaza instead of focusing energy on such a questionable action.
Sheline mentions, “The idea that it would be facilitating better outcomes for Palestinians to displace them and remove them at a time when they have such extreme needs. Framing this as somehow in their own interests, or as a humanitarian solution, as opposed to allowing them to go back to where their homes were, and surging assistance to them and allowing them to try to rebuild and providing them the resources to do so is ludicrous.”
There is also no concrete plan for how exactly the U.S. would acquire Palestine.
When asked if U.S. taxpayer dollars would be used to purchase the land, Trump evaded the specifics, declaring, “We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it.”
When asked what authority he would do, he merely replied, “U.S. authority.”
He further said that the war-ravaged area would soon become a place of economic development and an international destination. He claims they will build hotels, office buildings, and housing areas and that the area will be ripe with jobs for Middle Eastern people.
While Trump confirmed that Palestinians “wouldn’t be able to be there for years” during the redevelopment of Gaza, he made no explicit answer as to where the whopping 2.1 million Palestinian citizens will go during that time.
The neighboring countries of Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia swiftly rejected Trump’s suggestion that they should absorb Gaza’s population, making it clear that they wanted no ties to Israel.
The king of Jordan, King Abdullah II, “stresse[d] the need to put a stop to [Israeli] settlement expansion” and expressed “rejection of any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians.”
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry also affirmed they would not be reestablishing ties to Israel, stating, “Saudi Arabia rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has affirmed the kingdom’s position in ‘a clear and explicit manner’ that does not allow for any interpretation under any circumstances.”
Egypt is taking it a step further by countering Trump’s proposal with a plan to redevelop Gaza themselves. This plan calls for the creation of secure areas where Palestinians would reside during reconstruction to avoid displacing Palestinians. Egypt’s foreign ministry also stressed the importance of a two-state solution.
Israel is one of the few who appears to be entertaining Trump’s plans.
Netanyahu initially did not explicitly endorse the president’s plan but did encourage others to consider the plan in a press conference a couple of weeks back:
“President Trump is taking it to a much higher level. He sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so many attacks against us, so many trials and so many tribulations. He has a different idea, and I think it’s worth paying attention to this. We’re talking about it. He’s exploring it with his people, with his staff. I think it’s something that could change history and it’s worthwhile really pursuing this avenue.”
As of Sunday, February 16th, Netanyahu has officially endorsed it, deeming Trump’s plan as “the only viable plan to enable a different future” for the region.
Yet given the long and tumultuous fight over the land, many believe this “different future” Netanyahu speaks of is referring to the eradication of Palestinians.
Netanyahu says that the Palestinian’s relocation from Gaza would be voluntary, claiming that those who wished to leave Gaza could and would be permitted to return following reconstruction. Yet many critics remain unconvinced, arguing that the plan amounts to coercion, given the utter devastation of the territory.
What do the Palestinians themselves say?
Many warn of the danger of tolerating such a plan, like United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres suggesting such plans could lead down the road of another genocide, saying “in the search for solutions on Gaza, we must not make the problem worse. It is vital to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.”
A quote from Hasan Abuqamar, a survivor in Palestine, who wrote a letter to Trump on behalf of Gaza, reads “We, the people of Gaza – like any Indigenous people – refuse to be uprooted. We refuse to be dispossessed. We refuse to be forced into exile so that our land can be handed to the highest bidder. We are not a problem to be solved; we are a people with the right to live in our homeland in freedom and dignity.”
Read the full letter here.