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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/02/19/trumps-gaza-plan-a-green-light-for-ethnic-cleansing/">counterpunch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Trump’s Gaza Plan: A Green Light for Ethnic Cleansing?</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Ramzy Baroud</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">February 19, 2025</div>
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<div id="gmail-attachment_354932" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-354932" src="https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/chuttersnap-tzymjuiSqCE-unsplash-1-680x452.jpg" alt="" width="433" height="288" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-354932" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Image by Cuttersnap.</p></div>
<p>Let’s be clear: the forced displacement of Palestinians is not a new idea. US President Donald Trump’s latest <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cvg4zwwez9et">proposal</a>
to take “long-term ownership” of Gaza, to “clean out” the “mess”, and
to turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East” is just the latest
iteration of efforts aimed at ethnically cleansing Palestinians from
their homeland.</p>
<p>What makes Trump’s comments dangerous is not the immediate threat of
US military intervention in Gaza followed by the expulsion of its 2.2
million residents. The real danger lies elsewhere.</p>
<p>First, Israel may interpret Trump’s words as a green light to push
Palestinians out of Gaza or the West Bank. Second, the US could tacitly
endorse another Israeli offensive under the guise of fulfilling the
president’s wishes. Third, Trump’s remarks suggest his foreign policy on
Palestine will remain largely unchanged from his predecessor’s.</p>
<p>Some Democrats have seized this moment to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arab-american-voters-trump-dearborn-michigan-israel-biden-harris/">criticize</a> Arab and Palestinian Americans who <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/some-arab-americans-who-voted-for-trump-say-they-are-concerned-about-his-picks-for-key-positions">voted</a>
for Trump or abstained from supporting Democratic presidential nominee
Kamala Harris in the last elections. However, the idea of ethnic
cleansing was already being floated during the Biden administration.</p>
<p>While then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that
“Palestinian civilians… must not be pressed to leave Gaza,” Biden
created the conditions for displacement through unconditional military
support for Israel. This allowed one of the most devastating wars in
modern Middle Eastern history to unfold.</p>
<p>Just days into the war, on October 13, 2023, Jordan’s King Abdullah II <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/13/hamas-israel-war-jordan-abdullah-warning-abbas-displacement">warned</a>
Blinken in Amman against any Israeli attempt to “forcibly displace
Palestinians from all Palestinian territories or cause their internal
displacement.”</p>
<p>The latter displacement became a reality as most of northern Gaza’s population was <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/overcrowded-shelters-in-gaza-fuel-spread-of-diseases-warns-un-agency/3236466">crammed</a>
into overcrowded refugee encampments in central and southern Gaza,
where conditions have been and remain inhumane for over 16 months.</p>
<p>At the same time, another displacement campaign is underway in the
West Bank, particularly in its northern regions, accelerating in recent
weeks. Thousands of Palestinian families have already been <a href="https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/humanitarian-situation-update-260-west-bank-enar">displaced</a> in the Jenin governorate and other areas.</p>
<p>Despite this, the Biden administration has done little to pressure Israel to stop.</p>
<p>Arab concerns over Palestinian expulsion were real from the war’s
outset. Almost every Arab leader raised the alarm, often repeatedly.</p>
<p>Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi addressed the issue multiple
times, warning of Israeli efforts—and possibly US involvement—in a
“population transfer” scheme.</p>
<p>“What is happening now in Gaza is an attempt to force civilian residents to seek refuge and migrate to Egypt,” Sisi <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/egypt-rejects-any-displacement-palestinians-into-sinai-says-sisi-2023-10-18/">stated</a>, insisting that such an outcome “should not be accepted.”</p>
<p>Fifteen months later, under Trump, he <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/sisi-says-egypt-will-not-participate-act-injustice-displacing-palestinians-2025-01-29/">repeated</a> his rejection, vowing that Egypt would not participate in this “act of injustice.”</p>
<p>The Saudi statement was issued almost immediately after Trump doubled
down on the idea during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 4. The Saudi foreign ministry
went further than rejecting Trump’s ‘ownership’ of Gaza but articulated a
political discourse that summarized Riyad’s, in fact, the Arab League’s
position on Palestine.</p>
<p>“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirms that the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia’s position on the establishment of a Palestinian state is firm
and unwavering,” the statement <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/saudi-arabia-denies-trump-s-claim-says-no-normalization-with-israel-without-palestinian-state/3472052">said</a>,
adding that the Kingdom “also reaffirms its unequivocal rejection of
any infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,
whether through Israeli settlement policies, land annexation, or
attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land”.</p>
<p>The new US administration, however, seems oblivious to Palestinian history. Given the mass <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/about-the-nakba/">displacement</a>
of Palestinians in 1948, no Arab government—let alone the Palestinian
leadership—would support another Israeli-US effort to ethnically cleanse
millions into neighboring states.</p>
<p>Beyond the immorality of expelling an indigenous population, history
has shown that such actions destabilize the region for generations. The
1948 Nakba, which saw the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, ignited the
Arab-Israeli conflict, whose repercussions continue today.</p>
<p>History also teaches us that the Nakba was not an isolated event.
Israel has repeatedly attempted ethnic cleansing, starting with its
intense <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-176158/#:~:text=On%20the%20night%20of%2011,the%20inhabitants%20and%20destroying%20dwellings.">attacks</a> on Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza in the early 1950s, and ever since.</p>
<p>The 1967 war, known as the Naksa or “Setback,” <a href="https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/129536">led</a>
to the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, both
internally and externally. In the years that followed, various
US-Israeli initiatives throughout the 1970s sought to relocate the
Palestinian population to the Sinai desert. However, these efforts
failed due to the steadfastness and collective resistance of the people
of Gaza.</p>
<p>Trump’s so-called ‘humanitarian’ ethnic cleansing proposal will
similarly go down in history as another failed attempt, particularly as
Arab and international solidarity with the steadfast Palestinian people
is stronger than it has been in years.</p>
<p>The key question now is whether Arabs and other supporters of
Palestine worldwide will go beyond merely rejecting such sinister
proposals and take the initiative to push for the restoration of the
Palestinian homeland. This requires a justice-based international
campaign, rooted in international law and driven by the aspirations of
the Palestinian people themselves.</p>
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<em>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “</em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"><em>These Chains Will Be Broken</em></a><em>:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons”
(Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research
Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim
University (IZU). His website is </em><a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><em>www.ramzybaroud.net</em></a>
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