Trump’s Plan The Palestinians Won’t Trust It Nor Should They
In my post last week, I noted that Trump’s plan for Gaza constituted ethnic cleansing and a war crime. I described it as “Absurd, Inhumane, Heartless, and Callous.” Interestingly, his administration realized the absurdity of the proposal and immediately began to walk it back. Trump, however, continued the rhetoric.
“I know land deals.”
“We are going to buy Gaza.”
Some responded to my post by asserting, “This is nonsense.” Others were honestly asking, “Where are they supposed to live? They have nothing left.”
I will respond to this query, but first, let me reiterate that the point at hand in my article last week was that Trump’s plan amounts to ethnic cleansing. There is no “nonsense” here. The entire international community agrees that it is ethnic cleansing: “The UN has warned that any forced displacement of civilians from occupied territory is strictly prohibited under international law and “tantamount to ethnic cleansing.” (see also). Even Lindsay Graham, Trump’s golfing partner and an unabashed supporter of war, called Trump’s proposal “problematic.”
As for the supposition that the US will kindly assist the people of Gaza by relocating them while Gaza is rebuilt and that afterward, they can move back is simply not what Trump is planning. We need to go no further than Trump himself. When asked if the Palestinians will return to Gaza once it has been rebuilt, Trump replied, “No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing. I’m talking about building a permanent place for them.”
As Jonathan Cooke says, “Trump dropped Washington’s sugar coating of Israel’s 15-month genocidal destruction of Gaza. This was always about ethnic cleansing.”
In case that is not enough, here are six other considerations as to why the Palestinians will not and should not trust Trump’s plan.
1. It’s illegal and immoral to force a population from their land against their will.
The decision to live in Gaza is the Palestinians’ decision and no one else’s. If they don’t want to leave, no one has the right to make them. Trump’s plan does not even consider the desires of the Palestinians.
In an article by the Jewish magazine 972+, one resident of Gaza stated, “My house was destroyed and the land was bulldozed by the army, but I want to go back and stay in Rafah.’”
Another resident of Gaza expressed, “Even if it costs us our souls, we will not leave Gaza,” said Mahmoud Bahjat, who is from the north. “We are against Trump’s decision. He ended the war but displacing us would end our lives.”
This may seem strange to us in the West. Why would they not want to leave? There is nothing but devastation. This may be true, but if they want to live there, they have every right to do so.
2. No Palestinian will trust, nor should they, the US or Israel when they say that the people of Gaza will be able to return once Gaza is rebuilt.
There has been little doubt that Israel’s plan from the start has been to ethnically cleanse Gaza. Israel has not hidden this goal from anyone. Israeli documents in 2023 explicitly state that Israel planned to Expel All Palestinians.
972+ reports, “The 10-page document, dated Oct. 13, 2023, bears the logo of the Intelligence Ministry — a small governmental body that produces policy research and shares its proposals with intelligence agencies, the army, and other ministries. It assesses three options regarding the future of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the framework of the current war and recommends a full population transfer as its preferred course of action. It also calls on Israel to enlist the international community to support this endeavor. The document, whose authenticity was confirmed by the ministry, has been translated into English in full here on +972.”
“The document recommends that Israel act to ‘evacuate the civilian population to Sinai’ during the war; establish tent cities and later more permanent cities in the northern Sinai that will absorb the expelled population; and then create ‘a sterile zone of several kilometers … within Egypt, and [prevent] the return of the population to activities/residences near the border with Israel.’”
“The document unequivocally and explicitly recommends transferring Palestinian civilians from Gaza as the desired outcome of the war.”
“Concurrently with the re-occupation of Gaza, Palestinian civilians will be moved into Egyptian territory and not be allowed to return.”
The fact that the US has supplied the weapons for Israel’s assault on Gaza for the last 15 months unequivocally attests to the position of the US. Why would any Palestinian believe the US is a faithful actor in this story?
3. Israel’s campaign against Gaza was much more than an effort to rid Gaza of Hamas
The evidence is set in stone, or shall I say, in the rubble. Gaza has been almost completely decimated.
If Israel’s goal was to eliminate Hamas, then why is most of the Gaza Strip unlivable? The widespread destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure–including housing, schools and universities, government buildings, and the entire medical system–affirms that Israel aimed to ethnically cleanse Gaza and ensure that the people of Gaza had nothing to return to.
Ironically, for much of the war on Gaza, supporters of Israel denied that Israel was bombing hospitals and housing units. Such allegations were exaggerated. And the few occasions in which it was acknowledged that hospitals in Gaza were bombed were justified because Hamas was using them as a place of refuge. Any accusations to the contrary amounted to nothing more than antisemitic tropes designed to portray Israel as the aggressor.
Suddenly, it has become acceptable to acknowledge that Gaza has indeed been leveled. After all, this claim warrants the belief that the Palestinians should be “temporarily” relocated.
4. Trump is no different
Many are crying out that Trump is different. He is not a part of the deep state. But is he different?
Well, the Palestinians are unwilling to take that risk. Nor should they.
All they know is that every US president for the past 60+ years has given wholesale endorsement to Israel’s policies. This includes Trump I.
Sure, many US presidents have told, and even scolded, Israel for the continuous expansion of settlements. But, at the end of the day, every US president has capitulated to Israel’s request for money and arms to enable Israel’s confiscation of Palestinian lands and the maintenance of its oppressive occupation.
And Trump is no different. Just yesterday, he stated that if the Palestinians do not return all of the hostages by Saturday, “All hell will break out.”
What? The deal that Trump claimed was his doing, for which I gave him credit, said that the hostages would be released in stages. Suddenly, that deal is not good enough? For some reason, Trump, contravening his own agreed-upon terms, expects the hostages to be released in toto by Saturday at noon.
And what could he possibly mean by “All hell will break out”? How could it possibly be more hellish for the residents of Gaza than it already is?
The Palestinians have every reason to believe that Trump will continue to act in accord with Israel’s desires. Trump has asserted that Israel has no greater friend than him.
5. When Trump and Netanyahu say that after Gaza is rebuilt, they will allow the people of the land to return, they can only mean Israelis
Israel’s history since its founding in 1948 affirms that it will never allow the Palestinians to return. Expelling Palestinians and not allowing them to return has been Israel’s practice since the founding of Israel.
In 1948-49, Israel expelled 750,000 Palestinians from the land that is now Israel proper. These refugees and their descendants have never been allowed to return. The right of return for the refugees has been one of the key obstacles to the two-state solution.
Furthermore, we must recognize that 70% of Gazans are refugees (or descendants of refugees) from 1948. The Gaza Strip was formed as a place of detention for Palestinian refugees.
NB: Some of the Palestinian refugees went (or were forcibly displaced) to other countries such as Jordan and Lebanon. Others were settled in refugee camps in Bethlehem and parts of the West Bank. Still others were sent to Gaza.
If the Palestinians haven’t been allowed back to their homes for 77 years, why would they believe that “this time” Israel will allow them to return to Gaza?
“Once the American president proposes transfer as a solution to the ‘Palestinian problem,’ and once all of Israel — from the religious-fascist right to the liberal center and even the Zionist left — embraces it, the message to Palestinians is clear: there is no possibility of compromise with Israel and its American patron, at least in its current form, because they are determined to eliminate the Palestinian people.” 972+
6. Israel has never allowed any population to return to the land they have occupied
In 1967, Israel occupied East Jerusalem and annexed it. That year, they also took over the Golan Heights from Syria and annexed it. In the past year, Israel has occupied parts of southern Lebanon and Syria and has not withdrawn. Neither have they allowed those displaced to return.
The notion that Israel will allow the Palestinians to return defies Israel’s consistent practice of confiscating lands and then annexing the territory.
It is time that we recognize this conflict for what it is. The time for wishful thinking and fanciful notions of a rebuilt Gaza where the Palestinians can live in peace and without the fear of annihilation has long passed.
In the words of 972+ the war will end when Israel learns this simple truth, “The war will end only when Israeli society realizes that it is not only immoral but also impossible to secure our existence through the oppression and subjugation of another people — and that the people we imprison, bomb, starve, and rob of their freedom and land are entitled to the exact same rights as we are, down to the last note.
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